Frozen: Delayed Thaw
by Llamaface613
Summary: Alternate ending where Anna and Arendelle don't thaw after Anna saves Elsa from Hans. Elsa is still accepted as queen and she does her best to help everyone survive the winter curse while struggling with her inner grief. Contains light language, sadness and perhaps violence later on. My first fic.
1. Chapter 1

**My version of what would happen if Anna had died from Elsa's frozen heart curse.**

* * *

"ANNA!"

Elsa stood up and approached Anna who was now a frozen statue, her right arm and hand outstretched from when the girl was trying to block a deadly sword strike meant for her magic sister by her evil, former lover.

The snow queen begged Anna to defrost and live again, to say something like "I'm alright. No big deal." But no avail. She was gone. The very last thing the princess did seconds before freezing to death was save her from Prince Hans' murder attempt on Elsa.

Filled with heavy sadness and tears forming in her eyes, Elsa hugged onto her deceased sister Anna, sobbing on end.

Beside her were three companions who aided Anna on her eventual ill-fated journey: Kristoff, a man whom Anna befriended during her mission of retrieving Elsa from her Ice Castle hideout, Sven, a reindeer that was Kristoff's best friend and Olaf, a snowman whom Elsa had built long ago as a child with Anna and later rebuilt him after her escape from Arendelle when her powers were revealed to the public without her knowledge of him being alive until she saw him in her castle.

From a distance, the foreign dignitaries, the palace guards and servants, all looked on with saddened faces, every one of them being witnesses of the event that transpired upon the frozen fjord.

What they were seeing was strong evidence that, despite Elsa setting off an Ice Age all over Arendelle and her snow magic ending the life of her own sister and their princess, their queen was no monster or witch as described by a certain duke and it allowed them all to realize Elsa's purity from the heartbreaking scene before their very eyes and they all understood that she didn't mean to curse the kingdom or kill her own sister with her magic. If she were evil, then why would she have run off with fear on the night of her coronation or be mourning for Anna right now? Evil people certainly don't do those things.

The guards that were watching now felt incredibly guilty for locking Queen Elsa in the castle dungeon after capturing her and carrying out Prince Hans' order of executing Elsa for what he told them was her committing treason against Arendelle and "murdering" Anna and the dignitaries were regretful for siding with Hans and judging Elsa too fast without knowing all the facts first.

After a few minutes of observance, the dignitaries and guards decided to approach the troubled queen to check on her and see if she would like to return to the castle, not as a prisoner again this time, but as a way of comforting her and keeping her away from Hans now that they were aware of his true nature.

The citizens back in the village and on the bridge also saw what happened from their locations on land. Like them, they too felt sympathy for their queen and knew now that she was not evil and was just misunderstood.

Now that Hans was revealed to be a manipulative liar and his attempt of regicide backed it up, the foreign prince's so-called "marriage" to Anna before her "death" back at the castle and becoming Arendelle's new king was now null and void and everyone's allegiance shifted back to Elsa, assuming she would allow it, that is.

The ice harvester, his reindeer and the living snowman noticed their presence and didn't know how to act in front of the approaching people. They wondered what they could possibly want, knowing it had something to do with Elsa.

Elsa's back was turned to them and didn't notice their presence until the French dignitary spoke.

"Queen Elsa." he said. "We all saw what has transpired out here and we are very sorry for what has happened to your dear sister and for siding with Prince Hans and doubting you."

Elsa didn't move and just kept sobbing.

"If it is alright with you, Your Majesty, we wish to give Princess Anna an honorary funeral and we hope that you will, in time, return to your rightful position as queen of Arendelle." said the French man.

Upon hearing that, Elsa stopped her crying and turned to look at them. Her eyes were horribly red and her cheeks were stained with her tears.

"You . . . you still want me as queen? Even after all of . . . this? But why?" she questioned, waving her right hand around to signify the environmental disaster she caused.

"We know now that your actions were not intentional and we never saw you as some kind of abomination which the Duke of Weselton addressed you as during your coronation party."

Elsa noticed Hans laying still on the frozen ground, a result of striking Anna's frozen form when he was originally aiming for Elsa when she wasn't looking.

"And what of him? Why did he lie to me about Anna being dead earlier and then try to kill me?" Elsa asked, scared to even say his name aloud.

"Prince Hans will be held in the castle dungeon until a proper punishment for him can be decided. As for your question to his actions, We can only decipher that he did it with the intent of taking your place as Arendelle's ruler and to look like a hero to the public for 'saving' Arendelle. He, along with the duke, believed that killing you would remove your winter spell over the kingdom. You see, when Princess Anna returned to the castle after a, sorry to say, accident involving you in the mountains, she begged him to kiss her in order to cure herself of her ailing health because she said that only an act of true love could rid her of her freezing illness and she and Hans had grown to admire each other since their first meeting and we assumed it made sense for Hans to be the only one around here capable of saving her. We gave them some privacy to sort things out and minutes later, he returned to us and said that your magic had already killed her and that he and her had joined together in holy matrimony right before she supposedly expired, meaning that, according to marriage laws when it comes to marrying a royal of any kingdom, he was Arendelle's new king, or so we believed then. His first order, which, other than my comment, I refuse to say is 'official', was charging you with treason and sentencing you to death. Even saying that disgusts me right now. He walked back to your cell, accompanied by some of the guards, to carry out the deed and from what we've seen out here moments ago, we guess that you escaped imprisonment with some help from your magic. As to how Princess Anna ran out here to come to your rescue, we don't really know. You'll have to ask Hans when he comes to since he was the one who lied about Princess Anna dying inside the castle."

Elsa was horrified after learning Hans' reason for being in Arendelle and why he wanted her dead.

"We are so terribly sorry for obeying Hans' order of execution against you, Your Majesty. We hope you can forgive us eventually." one of the guards said. The others agreed with him.

"What about all of the villagers and the castle servants? They probably hate me by now and don't want me around them." Elsa said and wiped her eyes.

"I assure you, my queen, that the kingdom's population no longer fears you and like us, they also know of your good nature and we're certain they'll want you back as their queen, even if your . . . winter curse . . . can't be undone." the French person said.

He reached out his hand to Elsa much to the latter's fear.

"Please, your Majesty. You are the sole heir left around here. Despite how things have turned out, Arendelle needs you. Won't you come back? For your people and your subjects?" he asked.

He, the other dignitaries, and the guards, all knelt before Elsa as proof of their undying loyalty to her, ice magic or not.

Shocked that they were willing to accept her back despite her having magic and causing the freezing accident, Elsa, though still nervous, accepted the offer with a silent nod. She knew they were right. She just couldn't abandon Arendelle.

"Very well. Let's head back to the castle." she said.

The dignitaries helped escort Elsa while the guards carried the unconscious Southern Isles prince with them to be incarcerated in the dungeons for his crimes. They considered placing him in shackles that mirrored Elsa's to see how he liked it. It was a fitting way of holding him.

Kristoff, Sven and Olaf followed them behind as requested by the guards. Due to Kristoff returning Anna back to Arendelle when she was dying, it was the least they could do. As for Olaf, they would need to take some time to adjust to seeing him after some of the guards had a scuffle with her other creation and his brother, Marshmallow, back at her ice castle. One living snowman was frightening enough, but this little guy was unlike his vicious counterpart.

Anna's frozen body was stuck on the ice and could not be moved, so for now, she was left there regrettably. But a note was made to tend to that issue later to prepare for her burial. Right now, getting Elsa to safety was their top priority.

Elsa was nervous and depressed at the same time as she walked across the courtyard and toward the castle where she was now in full view of everyone who were formerly frightened of her. Even the woman with the baby whom Elsa saw at the party was there. This time, she was not afraid of the snow queen.

Every citizen stood and watched the young, walking queen with sadness and pity. Those who wore hats removed them out of respect for the late princess.

Elsa was surprised that nobody was chanting "Witch! Witch! Witch!" and threatening to kill her after what she had done. She noticed looks of sympathy on their faces instead of looks of anger and rejection, just as the dignitaries said. Like what the dignitaries and guards did, each person all bowed their heads to her, showing that they had no ill feelings of her.

"We still love you, Queen Elsa." someone said from the crowd and everyone else agreed with that statement and chanted support for her, telling her that she was a good person and didn't mean to freeze everything and that they were sorry about Anna and that they still wished for her to be their queen again, not giving a damn about the weather.

While still saddened by Anna's death and what she done to everyone, Elsa was very surprised that her people were very understanding of her personal pain and that they still admired her and she was grateful for that somewhere inside.

When the people laid their eyes on Hans just as he was regaining consciousness, rather than saying anything to him, everyone responded by literally turning their backs on their so-called king. Normally, they'd yell and boo at him for his actions and deception, but out of respect for the recently deceased Anna and the grieving Elsa, they restrained themselves and decided to do those things to him next time. Whatever discipline he would receive in the future, each of them hoped it was real good one, something that goes perfectly for a bastard like him.

Hans, confused as to what was going on and why everybody was ignoring him instead of bowing to him, asked about it and one of the guards simply told him to shut his mouth.

Offended, Hans said, "How dare you speak to me in that manner! I am your king and I demand-"

He was interrupted by another guard near him who explained that the whole kingdom knew about his actions and that he was not their king anymore and never was in the first place.

Hans tried to talk his way out of his situation, but the guards ignored him and kept moving with him in tow.

Kristoff and Olaf were close behind, watching the crowd's reaction and realized it was all directed at the evil prince rather than at Elsa.

Entering the castle, Elsa was escorted to the throne room where her coronation party was held on the night of her magical revelation.

The entire place jolted Elsa's memory of the events that night as if it had had happened years back. Her argument with Anna over her request to be married to the man who would eventually become a backstabbing son of a bitch, hearing the Duke of Weselton calling Elsa's powers sorcery (which was technically true) and then calling her a monster afterward when he slipped and fell from Elsa's ice magic when she was scared.

"Would you like something to drink, your Majesty?" one guard asked, snapping her out of her trance.

"Yes. Warm tea, please. I don't really care what flavor." Elsa said. She would have asked for hot chocolate, but it reminded her of Anna for she had a sweet tooth for chocolate as did she such as when the sisters picked up its scent on that night and laughed about it.

"At once, my queen." the guard said and he told a nearby servant to fetch a cup of tea for the queen.

"Are you cold, Your Majesty?" another guard asked.

"No. My magic makes me immune to cold temperatures." Elsa answered as she sat down on her throne, wishing the same could be said about the people suffering from her curse.

Later, the same servant returned with a nice, hot cup of spearmint tea and gave it to Elsa.

"Your tea, Your Majesty. It's spearmint." he said.

"Thank you." she complimented and held the cup in her hands, trying to chill it a little first before drinking it as it was too hot. Everyone nearby saw what she was doing to the cup's contents, knowing why she did that, and didn't flinch, knowing she would never harm them.

Elsa turned and saw some of her guards hauling the struggling Hans inside and toward the dungeon.

The prince spotted Elsa and angrily demanded that she be arrested on the spot, calling her a murderer and a witch from hell that must be exterminated immediately. His outlandish demand was denied when one guard jammed his fist into Hans' stomach as retaliation for his remarks against their queen.

Elsa was in too much grief to order a direct punishment for him right now. She was also traumatized from being locked up in the dungeons herself after the scuffle at her ice castle due to the attempt on her life by the Duke's bodyguards. She even nearly killed them in a fit of rage were it not for Hans talking her out of it.

Elsa hated killing, even if it was against the assassins trying to kill her first. But in a way, those two were asking for it by angering her to the point of fighting back. She pleaded with them to leave her alone, they refused, and that's how it began.

When her tea was no longer hot, Elsa drank it. It was delicious.

For a moment, Elsa remained silent. All she could think about right now was Anna. Her frozen form haunted her mind. First her mother and father and now her. It were as if those close to her were targets of death. Now that she was gone, Elsa didn't know how she could live with herself or if she can handle ruling over a kingdom that was now a shell of its former self. Sure, she had the support of every person in Arendelle as depicted during her walk back to the castle with the exceptions of Hans, the Duke and his bodyguards, (the latter two were also locked in the dungeon after Hans brought Elsa back to Arendelle from the North Mountain after she was knocked unconscious) but she still felt alone in the world now that her only relative was dead. This was going to take a lot of time to adjust to. They say time heals all wounds, but she doubted her wounds would ever heal considering how they were formed in the first place.

Elsa stated to her guards, servants and to the dignitaries that she wanted to head up to her room to have a moment alone to collect her thoughts as she could not think clearly.

"Of course, your Majesty. This is your home and you may do as you wish." one of the dignitaries said.

Elsa thanked that person and got up and started to walk away. Before leaving the throne room, she told the guards and castle staff to tend to the people outside who were in dire need of aid from the effects of the snow curse and that they were all welcome to enter the castle for comfort and warmth if they desired and she left Kai in charge of things in her absence.

The servants and guards complied and went to fulfill her request.

Kristoff, Olaf and Sven entered the throne room and remained where they were, unsure whether to follow Elsa or stay and give the castle employees a helping hand with their tasks.

"Should we go after her?" Olaf asked Kristoff.

"Maybe we should sit this one out. She's in deep mourning right now. When she's ready to come out, we'll talk to her then." said Kristoff.

"If you say so. I'll hide somewhere where nobody will see me. I mean, imagine how they'll react if they saw a walking, talking snowman." Olaf stated.

Kristoff was about to counter when he thought it over quickly. Although Olaf was a friendly creature, people were not yet ready to accept an animate snowman. It might freak them out even more than they already are from Elsa's winter fiasco. They were able to make it to the castle when everyone turned their backs on Hans, allowing the three to slip in unnoticed by anyone other than the staff and guards.

"Okay. I'll go see if I can be of use to anybody while you remain in here." Kristoff said and walked back out the exit. Olaf was alone in the throne room now. He saw some people walking by, gathering supplies and giving out directions and orders to one another.

The butler, Kai, as Elsa called him, noticed Olaf standing by himself. Amazed that his queen was able to bring him to life, he approached the snowman. He was not afraid of him as Olaf and Kristoff figured.

"Hello, little one." he said to Olaf.

Olaf turned around and saw the balding human standing behind him.

"Oh, hi. I'm Olaf. Elsa built me back at the North Mountain although she did it before when she was a little kid." Olaf explained. Because of the depressive state everyone was in, he kept his liking of warm hugs to himself for now.

"Oh. Well, I'm Kai. A faithful servant to Queen Elsa and Pri . . . the late Princess Anna." he said, remembering that Anna was no longer with them.

"Hi, Kai." Olaf said. "So, how long have you known about Elsa's magic?"

Kai rubbed the back of his head. "Well, despite my service to the royal family since the reign of Arendelle's previous rulers, like everyone else, I too was unaware of what she was capable of doing until she was crowned our new queen. Her parents convinced her to stay inside her bedroom when she was a child. Aside from her parents, Queen Elsa had very limited contact with people, even myself. That's pretty much why I didn't know much about her. Her predecessors must have been fearful of anyone discovering their daughter's powers and having to face persecution for it." he said.

"Poor Queen Elsa. With her secret now out in the open and what it did to the kingdom and her sister, she must feel terrible and guilty about it." a female voice called out.

The two turned their heads (Olaf literally turned his head to a full 180 degrees due to him being a snowman) and saw who spoke. It was Gerda, another servant of the castle who, like Kai, had also worked for Elsa's family for years. She too felt sympathy for Elsa and had no grudge against her despite the events that transpired.

"All those years she spent in hiding to protect everyone now seems like it ended in vain." Gerda said. She hated being right about that, but it sounded true.

"I'm hoping I can talk to her when she's had her alone time in hopes of cheering her up." Olaf told them.

"I hope you can. With her being the last of her family, she'll need all the love and support we can offer her. Kai and I both swore an oath long ago to stay loyal to the family and, even in this frightful weather and the loss of our beloved princess, we will continue to honor that promise for the rest of our lives." Gerda stated.

Kai agreed with the woman's words. Elsa may be a sorceress, but she was their sorceress and was a good person and did not deserve abandonment now or ever.

* * *

**Hi everybody. This is the starting chapter to my first ever story. I'm such a big sucker for Frozen like most of the world is and so, I've decided to start building my fanbase with this story. I've been wanting to tell it to someone ever since I saw the movie and with my recent discovery of this awesome website, I'm finally able to! YAY!**

**This is my take on how things in the movie might have turned out if Anna had hadn't thawed. It's depressing at first I know, but it's a start and I hope to make it better for all later on. I hope you like it and if you request for more, I'll be happy to oblige.**

**Please go easy on me since, like I said, this is my first posted fanfiction story and I'm not very familiar with how things work on this site.**

**Thank you. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi. I'm back for more! A big shout out to my first reviewer and reader! Here is chapter 2 of my story.**

* * *

"OW! Not so rough!" Hans complained as he was forcibly escorted to the dungeons. It was dark and damp, just as it was when he had placed, visited and prepared to kill, Elsa when she was incarcerated inside.

Besides the royal guards, Hans was going to have company during his stay in the dungeon. Residing inside were the two thugs from Weselton who tried to assassinate Elsa in her ice castle and failed. They shared a cell room and were trying to keep warm from the cold air. More of it invaded the dungeon from the cell that formerly housed Elsa, a result of her escape not too long ago.

The heard the scuffle from outside their cell and they peeked through the door's bars and saw Hans being brought inside, struggling and expressing anguish.

The thugs were surprised to see what was happening with him. The very man who aided Arendelle during Anna's absence after the princess rode into the forest to find Elsa and won the people over with his charm and good graces was now being treated like a prisoner and they wondered why.

The last time they saw Hans, they accompanied him and several Arendelle guards in searching for Queen Elsa.

The prince and the guards were unaware that they intended to kill Elsa as requested by the Duke of Weselton.

During the scuffle in Elsa's ice castle, while pinned to a wall by ice spikes, one of the thugs attempted to shoot the snow queen with his crossbow while the magical monarch was distracted from something Hans said that made her lower her defenses. Seeing what he was about to do, Hans immediately stopped the man by deflecting his weapon, causing him to shoot the ceiling's chandelier instead and the resulting crash knocked Elsa unconscious.

With the queen incapacitated and vulnerable, the two assassins freed themselves from their restraints and went for Elsa as she laid defenseless on the floor, but Hans and the guards stopped and arrested them before they could make their move. When the party returned, the men were placed in the prison along with a still-unconscious Elsa who was put in a different cell.

Back to the present, the would-be killers watched as the Southern Isles prince was led to his own cell and was shoved inside. While they couldn't see what was going on anymore, they heard the sound of rattling chains, telling them that the guards were restraining Hans with cuffs.

Making good on their mental promise, the guards encased Hans' hands in shackles that greatly mirrored the ones Elsa's hands were placed in.

"Unlock these damned things at once!" Hans hissed, feeling completely humiliated at being manhandled like this.

"No can do, Hans. You have earned them from the moment you lied to us all and plotted against our queen and princess." said the guard who put him in the restraints.

Despite Hans' royal status, the guards simply refused to address him as "prince", "Sire", "Your Highness", "Your Majesty", or any other title signifying importance since they felt he was now unworthy of them. The only title the man deserved, if one were to ever exist, was a prince of evil and lies.

"You call that inhuman creature a queen!? She cursed you people with her winter magic and killed her own sister by freezing her to death and yet you _still_ show respect to her!?" Hans asked in outrage.

"Yes we do. While what you said about what she did is true, she is still our queen and her actions were unintentional and beyond her own control. Her having ice magic does not make her an evil person at all and we swore to protect and serve her and her family for years.

"She should be facing the treason and murder charges I applied against her for those heinous acts and be stripped of her title!" said Hans.

"It is rather _you_ that should experience those things Hans, which we are certain you will eventually. You may not have magic like Queen Elsa does, but after seeing what you have tried to do out there, the real inhuman monster around here is you. Well, you and those two people from Weselton who tried to kill her before you." said the guard.

Hearing that made the two thugs learn why Hans was being imprisoned with them. He tried to finish what they could not and now he was sharing the same fate as them.

"I was trying to save Arendelle from Elsa! My order to have her executed was my way of achieving this!" Hans argued, trying to justify his actions of regicide.

"Well, after what we've seen out there a few minutes ago, we've come to realize that it was a mistake for us to help carry it out and take your word for it. Plus, we admit that it was foolish of us to believe that you and Princess Anna had married as there was no one there to conduct a wedding ceremony for you and her, which further nullifies your so-called marriage and of your position as king of Arendelle. We're lucky that she hasn't frozen us all in revenge for invading her mountain castle and imprisoning her in here and we wouldn't blame her if she did." they told him.

Realizing that he was not going to get anywhere with this argument, Hans looked down at his hand shackles.

"You can't leave me in these restraints! What if I need to, you know, have some . . . private time?" Hans was embarrassed for even thinking to ask that kind of question.

"Go right ahead if you need to. Nobody's stopping you. There's an empty bucket in the cell for you to use to which we provide all prisoners." said the guards and they walked out of Hans' cell, closed the door and took their leave out of the dungeon, leaving the three prisoners to themselves.

Growling, Hans saw the bucket the guards were referring to and kicked it in anger, causing it to slam against one of the cell's walls.

"Damn that Elsa! If only that stupid chandelier had killed her rather than render her unconscious, I wouldn't be in this particular mess and Arendelle would be mine to rule!" Hans said aloud.

"Then why didn't you kill her when she was in here?" asked one of the duke's bodyguards.

Hans heard that.

"What are you talking about?" he asked.

"When the queen was chained up in here, that was your chance to kill her when nobody but us was around to see it. Then afterward, while you were still trustworthy around here, you could have convinced everyone later on that she was acting crazy with her magic and that you had no choice but to kill her to protect yourself. It would have been the perfect crime. If we were in your shoes and we wanted the throne to this damned kingdom, we certainly would've done the same thing to her. Who's really the smart one around here 'your highness'?" the thug sneered. His partner joined him.

Hans disliked the attitude of that thug, but what he had just said poked a huge, metaphorical hole in Hans and realized he was right. Of course. It would have been the perfect crime had he resorted to that plan instead of biding his time by playing the innocent prince.

With Elsa's hands locked in shackles and unable to fight back (or so he believed before she escaped even with the cuffs), she was wide open for any kind of fatal blow and Hans was too blind then to notice the opportunity that had befallen upon him and now that opportunity was gone.

* * *

Elsa laid on her bed facedown, crying again. This might have sounded unqueen-like to some, but she couldn't help it.

While she sobbed, her room became covered in frost as a result of her emotions, just like three years ago when she was a teenager.

While the death of Anna really hit her hard, it wasn't the only thing she was upset about. She was also upset because she could not undo her winter spell over Arendelle. Her people could suffer and die from the endless winter and that would haunt her for the rest of her life, knowing that she would be the cause of it if those things ever were to come to pass. To her, she may have doomed her own home.

In her mind, she guessed that if her parents were around during these events, they'd disown her in the blink of an eye and either put her back in the dungeon, banish her or have her executed. But in reality, if they were here, they they would have tried to comfort her and tell her that they still love her regardless of what she had done.

After a while of moping, Elsa sat upright and wiped her tears from her face and eyes and sat there in silence. Like before, she was alone, like she said she wanted minutes ago.

She saw the frost and snow all over her room and, like her winter curse, she also didn't know how to remove that either. She couldn't even remember how the frost disappeared from her room three years back.

A knock was heard from her room's door. She remembered Anna using a signature knock of hers every day back from when they were separated.

"Elsa?" a voice asked from the other side. It was Olaf.

Aside from expelling him out of her ice palace hours ago, something she now regretted doing, even in her sadness, Elsa didn't have it in her to dismiss her own creation away. A mistake she often did with Anna for years.

"Come in." she said.

The door opened and in stepped the lovable snowman.

"Hi Elsa. Are you okay?" Olaf asked.

"Oh, I'm peachy. I'm just dealing with the fact that I killed my baby sister and cursed my own kingdom and people with a limitless winter that I don't know how to end." Elsa answered with a hint of non-angered sarcasm.

Olaf didn't know if he should be hurt by her tone or not, but knew she was right.

"Elsa, it's okay. Nobody hates you for doing those things. They know you didn't mean them and they even said so themselves that they still want you around and you saw their expressions of sadness and sympathy when you came back." he said.

"But do they accept me because they really _do_ want me or is it because they think I'll do to them what I did to Anna if they turn me away?" Elsa questioned, turning her head away from Olaf to hide her tears running down her face again.

She got the feeling that the second option may be true. However, even if she was rejected, which she believed she deserved despite everybody siding with her, she still hated the idea of using her powers to terrorize people and vowed to never do that to anyone to further show her good side.

That got to Olaf who didn't really think of that type of possibility. He then doubted that the people and servants secretly wished Elsa to be gone otherwise they would have never invited her back into the castle to help her cope with today in the first place.

"I came from speaking to your two most loyal servants downstairs who say they've worked for your family ever since you and Anna were children. They didn't freak out from seeing me if you're thinking that, plus they said that they were more than willing to continue serving you even during this time. They, and your workers, are not afraid of you as you might believe." said Olaf.

Elsa knew Olaf was referring to Kai and Gerda, her most trusted servants whom she indeed has known from her days as a princess before being promoted to queen.

"Really? They said that?" Elsa asked her creation, wiping her eyes again.

"Absolutely. You know, despite this freaky snow weather, and that's coming from me, a snowman made of, well, snow, the people would much rather have a magical yet kind, warm-hearted person like you as ruler of Arendelle than having that other, non-magical guy filling your shoes. I mean think about it. If he was the one calling the shots around here instead of you, he'd probably boss the heck out of everyone like a mean, selfish, iron fisted dictator, which would be really bad. That's why nobody's decided to persecute you, Elsa. You are no cold-hearted tyrant like that prince would have been, no pun intended. Good and evil are not born. They're made."

Elsa thought Olaf's words carefully and deduced that he had a point. She may have been the cause of Arendelle's crisis and Anna's horrible passing, but she still had the virtuous nature she was raised with for years and Anna's sacrifice for Elsa's safety out in the frozen fjord said it all.

Despite still in mourning, Elsa also realized that if she was going to resume her duties as queen, she had to began acting like it and one of the first steps of doing that was to do her part in helping out the village. Nobody said she had to, but sitting it out felt wrong to her. She may be royalty and be back on the throne, metaphorically speaking, but in her eyes, that did not mean she could stay in her room and laze around while everyone else had to work hard to survive the harsh winter she caused, intentional or not. If she couldn't remove the snow, she could at least try to keep her people safe as best as possible.

Elsa figured that if Anna and her parents saw her sitting in her room feeling sorry for herself, they'd tell her to not give up and that she'd make a wonderful ruler, magic or not, and that they would love her for eternity.

She was now somewhat happy that Olaf had given her a pep talk to snap her out of her emotional trance (even though she had every right to be upset) boost her will to live and to rule as queen.

"Thanks Olaf."

"You're wel-wait, what for?" Olaf asked, confused.

"For convincing me to get back on my feet.

"Oh, you know me Elsa. I'm full of cheer, friendliness and stuff, just as you made me to be. If only the same could be said about my brother." Olaf said.

Elsa knew he was talking about her ice castle guardian Marshmallow. Technically, the two living snow beings were brothers on account of her being the creator of both of them. It made sense.

She unconsciously smiled lightly at the thought and at what Olaf's description of himself.

"Wow. I haven't seen you crack a smile since the ice palace in the mountains." he said after noticing.

Elsa realized her facial expression and indeed remembering smiling after seeing Olaf alive for the first time. The sight of him walking and talking made her feel happy for a moment back there before the memory of Anna's near-death experience as a child resurfaced in her mind and ruined the moment which drove her to tell Anna and Olaf to leave her castle.

Elsa wiped her eyes again, stood up from her bed and headed to the door of her room.

"Where are you going?" Olaf asked her.

"I'm going back to help them out." she answered.

"Why?"

"Because now that I'm the queen again, my subjects need me." she said.

"Okay."

Before Elsa opened the door, she turned back to Olaf.

"Before I leave, I have something to give to you." she said.

"What is it?" Olaf asked.

Elsa knelt down to his eye level and wrapped her arms around the snowman, surprising him.

"Oh, right." Olaf said after remembering that he liked warm hugs to which he hugged her back. Back when he was first built by the royal sisters and inanimate, Elsa voiced this herself to Anna.

They disbanded and Elsa took a deep breath, tried to focus and walked back to the door, opened it and took her leave with Olaf waddling right behind her.

Despite being in mourning, she felt she had to make up for everything that had happened because of her. For her people, for her kingdom, and most importantly, for Anna.

* * *

**Ta-da! I have done it again. Did you like it? I did what I can to keep the characters and mood as they would have been if this was shown in the movie. How will things turn out now that Elsa is queen once more? Can the people tolerate the winter curse a little while longer? Will Elsa be able to find a way to stop her winter curse and at least try to move on with her life without Anna? What will become of Hans and the two homicidal thugs from Weselton, or should I say, "Weasel-Town"? **

**Stay tuned to find out.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Well, let's see what happens next now that Elsa has accepted her role of being queen. But will she accept being a sorceress of ice magic? Arendelle has never had a magical ruler before and Elsa may be the first one.**

* * *

Elsa walked slowly through the hallways with Olaf waddling by her side.

She rubbed her right arm with her left hand out of nervousness. She may have been inspired by her snowman to carry on her life as Arendelle's new monarch, but she still felt nervous, not because of the public now knowing she was a sorceress as she was slowly getting over that, but because she lacked training on how to control her powers (that "conceal, don't feel" trick her father taught her years ago was ineffective sometimes like the moment at the ice castle where she tried hard to calm herself down with that phrase after mistakenly infecting Anna with her magic and it didn't work as her castle responded negatively by darkening its appearance much to Elsa's horror) and she was still fearful that anyone near her could be harmed by her magic if she were to lose control again.

Olaf looked around the halls, wondering where the icicles had gone. They were not here when he made his way to Elsa to talk to her. When Anna was alive earlier in the day, the large, dangerous icicles formed around the halls when he helped lead her out of the castle. The cause of their appearance was either Elsa's emotions running wild or the lethal ice curse coursing through Anna's body.

When Elsa had returned to the castle, the spikes had seemed to disappear. If Elsa were to return to a very negative mood like anger or fear, the spikes may return.

Since Elsa was not around to see them, Olaf informed her about the icicles being everywhere and telling her about his and Anna's escape attempt in an effort to find Kristoff who Anna believed was the key to saving her from dying.

Elsa guessed these ice spikes Olaf spoke of were because of her and that they happened when she froze her prison cell trying to escape. She asked if Anna was hurt by the spikes and Olaf said no. He tried to lighten the mood for Elsa by admitting to having been non-lethally impaled by one back in the mountains during their mission to retrieve Elsa and repeated what he said to Anna and Kristoff when it happened.

Once again, Elsa smiled a little, but it was still not enough to relieve her of her trauma.

She asked why Anna thought Kristoff was capable of breaking her frozen heart curse and Olaf stated that last night, some rock trolls Kristoff took them to see said that only true love was the means of thawing a frozen heart.

When Elsa heard Olaf mention the term "trolls", she flashed back to the night where she and her family had ridden into the forest to visit them after Elsa accidentally harmed Anna during one of their night games with her snow magic. She remembered seeing the head troll who cured Anna's injury, removed her memories of Elsa's magic and the incident in order to bring her back and remembered his warning about what Elsa's powers were capable of doing if untamed which is what led to Elsa's years of isolation in her bedroom.

Downstairs in the throne room, a few guards were lifting a heavy box to take outside and they nearly dropped it when Kai, who was organizing things, noticed Elsa making her way down the stairs.

"Queen Elsa!" Kai said and bowed before her presence. The guards saw her and placed the box down to join in bowing to the queen.

"At ease, gentlemen." Elsa said and they straightened themselves. It was custom to bow to her, but Elsa felt it to be unnecessary for now. The guards resumed with the box and left Elsa and Kai alone to speak.

"Is something wrong, Your Majesty?" asked Kai after noticing that Elsa still had a look of sadness on her face.

Elsa shook her head. "No, I'm fine."

"I thought you wanted some time to yourself, my queen." Kai said.

"I did, and while I was in my room, I've been doing some thinking and I've come to realize that if I'm going to retake my status as queen, I must make myself useful around here." Elsa told him.

"But aren't you still in mourning over Princess Anna and of what happened everywhere?" Kai asked.

"Of course I am, but isolating myself will not make things better for anyone. I've done that ever since I was eight years old and it was miserable for me and my family. I tried it again just a couple of days ago when my secret came out and . . . well you know how that turned out. Besides, I figure that if it were me in Anna's place and her in mine, I wouldn't want her to give up on herself. I would most certainly want her to embrace being Arendelle's new queen and to rule with dignity." Elsa said.

"Yes, she would have made a fine queen if she were alive instead of you." Kai said. He then suddenly clapped a hand over his mouth after realizing what he just said.

_My god, what have I done?_ he thought in panic.

"My dearest apologies, my queen! I meant no offensive from my statement!" he said quickly, thinking that his poor choice of words may have upset Elsa again.

But Elsa didn't flinch in resentment at all.

"No, no. It's okay. I actually agree on that. I too believe Anna, despite her child-like nature, would have been loved and admired by all of Arendelle if she were queen." Elsa told him to calm him down. She was never really provoked by Kai's comment.

Kai was relieved that he was safe and continued conversing with his magical queen.

"You believe the people would have loved her with or without magic like yours?" Kai questioned.

"Yes." Elsa answered.

Elsa felt herself about to cry again, but she resisted the urge to.

Kai took notice and decided to drop the subject as he didn't wish to upset her further than she already was. He was willing to relieve himself of the duties Elsa bestowed upon him, but Elsa insisted that he stay and help her with whatever work was needed to be done to keep the people safe.

Kai thanked her.

"What course of action should we take against Hans Westergard and those bodyguards of the Duke's?" Kai wondered.

Hearing Hans name and the two thugs stung Elsa's mind.

"Keep them locked up in the dungeon. I shall deal with them at a later time because I really don't want to see their faces right now, not even the Duke's as I not only remember him addressing me as a monster at my coronation party, but I also suspect him of being partly responsible for his bodyguards' attack on me at my mountain castle. Which reminds me, when you get the chance, inform the castle guards that if they see the duke and/or he wishes to see me, they are to keep him away from me unless noted otherwise." Elsa answered.

Kai took a mental note to see to that.

"And Princess Anna's . . . remains?" he asked her with an uneasy voice.

That got to Elsa. She was sure that seeing her sister's ghostly, icy body would send her on another emotional fit like before.

As much as Elsa wished to tend to Anna's frozen form to prepare for burial, she decided against it, which was hard for her inside.

"We will tend to her later. Right now, the people come first. I know she would do the same and I would not have minded." Elsa said.

The idea of putting Anna aside to tend to her duties hurt Elsa a bit inside, but ignoring the needs of the very people who have just accepted her back into their lives for something personal seemed kinda selfish to her and she didn't have it in her to do it. However, she did request that at least one guard check up on Anna's statue form just in case.

Kai accepted her choice and they made for the castle's doors and stepped outside.

Kai saw a nearby guard and gave him Elsa's order about the duke and of Anna's body.

"At once." said the guard and ran off to spread the word.

Elsa's decision to put Arendelle's safety first and her needs second was very mature and noble of her. Even her parents may have approved of this, in a sense.

Olaf stayed behind, not sure of what to do.

Kristoff had just returned from the kitchen with a glass of water in his hand. Despite the situation, he was thirsty as he didn't have any water to drink even before his first meeting with Anna at the Oakland store. He was not around when Olaf had snuck away to visit Elsa and assumed she was still upstairs in her room.

"Hey Olaf. You ready to go talk to Elsa?" he asked.

"Oh, I've already taken care of that." Olaf said.

"You have?" Kristoff asked.

"Yeah. I went to see her in her room while you were gone, which was quite large by the way, and as we spoke over things like Anna and this snowy issue and stuff, I had somehow convinced her to press onward with being queen and now she's outside helping out."

Kristoff looked at the castle doors and sure enough, there was Queen Elsa walking around, observing the environment and asking nearby people what they needed to get through.

"Aren't you gonna go help?" Olaf asked him.

Kristoff looked back at Olaf. "What about you? Won't you be lonely without me or Elsa?" he asked.

"I don't mind. I'm a snowman, so I can't really do much lifting and stuff like people can."

He flexed his stick arms like a bodybuilder to demonstrate his lack of physical strength or muscles, much to Kristoff's slight amusement.

Knowing Anna from her goofy personality, she probably would have laughed hard at this.

"Elsa would appreciate your involvement in helping her. Anna would." Olaf said. He didn't mean to use Anna's name as a means of goading Kristoff into going through with it, he just figured Anna really would have asked Kristoff to help in restoring order to Arendelle.

Knowing he was correct and feeling it was the right thing to do, Kristoff finished his water drink, gave the empty cup to Olaf who didn't mind taking it, and raced outside the castle grounds.

Olaf just stared awkwardly at the cup, wondering what to do with it. He'd seen Kristoff use it for drinking, but with him being a snowman . . .

* * *

**Wow. I think I'm getting the hang of how to use this fanfiction site. To be honest, a friend of mine who was the one that introduced me to this site uploaded the previous chapters for me, but this time, I wanted to do it.**

**The next chapter will show more of Hans and the thugs' well-deserved treatment along with what the duke of Weasel-Town will be facing for his part in the assassination attempt against Elsa.**

**If you want to see justice for Anna, a hard-ass punishment for Hans, the thugs and the Puke of Weselton and perhaps a way for Anna to return from the dead, then gimmie a "whoop-whoop!" with your fist pumped in the air like you're at an entertainment event or something.**

**Bye.**


	4. Chapter 4

**I know I said this chapter would be about the prisoners locked in the dungeons, but I just couldn't help thinking more Elsa-related material and I figured I might as well include it here. The prisoners will be shown after Elsa's part. I mashed them together like the potatoes and gravy I'm eating as I'm typing this.**

* * *

High above the castle balcony, the Duke of Weselton saw Queen Elsa, a.k.a. the "monster", roaming around the Arendelle village, conversing with the population and helping them out with whatever they needed.

While cold and shivering on the outside, the sight of Elsa made his blood boil inside.

To him, magical people like Elsa were not meant to be admired or to be rulers of kingdoms. Magical beings should be feared and persecuted as witches and sorcerers and be burned at stakes by angry mobs. But there was no angry mob down below and no public execution was taking place. He saw citizens actually being comfortable around the snow queen like it was no, big deal. That was not normal to him and he refused to accept this.

This woman cast an eternal winter all over Arendelle and just minutes ago, he was one of many who saw Princess Anna, Elsa's own sister, freeze to death because of her and there she was, just walking down the street acting like she had every right to.

While he spited the young woman for having ice powers, he did admit a couple of faults however. The first was that Hans Westergard, prince of the Southern Isles, lied about Anna dying inside the castle and wedding her while she was still among the living, both of which were later proven false.

The second was that after Elsa's abilities were revealed, when he saw Anna approaching the courtyard to pursue Elsa while the queen fled before she died, he acted hastily toward Anna by assuming she too had magic simply because the two girls were related and accused her of plotting with Elsa to destroy Arendelle, both also not being true. Judging Anna because of Elsa was something even the duke himself somewhat regretted doing which was shown when he expressed shock at Hans' false story of Anna perishing to Elsa's magic too early, showing that he may have kinda cared about her. He may hate Elsa, but he had nothing against Anna because she was ordinary like she put it.

Queen Elsa was not the only person he held a grudge against however. Even though he was not magical, he also despised Prince Hans.

While he had hoped for the Southern Isles prince to succeed in killing Queen Elsa on the frozen fjord when he had the chance as he admitted earlier that Elsa needed to be dealt with, his reasons for hating Hans was because, besides lying about Anna's "demise" just minutes before it actually happened, he also gave away blankets and food supplies to the people after Anna put him in charge of the kingdom in her absence when she ventured out to retrieve Elsa, which the duke viewed as valuable goods as he had said so in front of Hans in which Hans in turn threatened the duke with arrest and imprisonment for treason much to the duke's bafflement.

Ironically, Hans had just done the same thing.

Even in the winter crisis, the duke still had a need to possess Arendelle's riches for his own greedy needs then, something he relished in doing when he came. He wasn't so sure about that anymore now that the entire kingdom was undergoing an eternal ice age because of Elsa.

Putting those things aside, he decided to confront Elsa and felt he had to goad the people into siding against her for freezing them, even though that was going to be very unlikely with everyone siding with her. Like Hans, the duke also believed Elsa needed to face serious punishment for Arendelle's current condition and for Anna's death. Both men had different reasons for being in Arendelle, but Elsa was their common enemy.

He walked out of the balcony and marched downstairs to the castle's entrance/exit gates and out into the courtyard and onto the bridge, ready to give Queen Elsa a piece of his mind.

But as he reached the opposite end of the bridge that led into the village, he was suddenly stopped by two palace guards armed with spears and swords.

"Excuse me, gentlemen. But can you let me pass? I must have a word with Elsa." he said to them, thinking they might allow it because of his status.

"That's _Queen_ Elsa to you and no, we cannot let you pass." said one guard.

"What? Why not?" the duke asked.

"She has instructed us to prevent you from getting anywhere near her." said the other guard.

The duke was outraged.

"You're allowing that snow demon to do this? I am the Duke of Weselton and I demand to see the queen!" he barked, raising a finger at them.

That was when the two guards aimed their spears directly at the old man.

"Watch your tongue, Duke! That is our queen you are talking about!" they warned him.

"Oh, I see. She's threatened to freeze you all to death like she did with Princess Anna if you disobey and go against her, is that it?" the duke said, thinking they denied him access to speak to Elsa out of fear of her.

"It is nothing like that at all, Duke. Magic or not, Queen Elsa is no threat to the people or to us and we have willingly switched our allegiance back to her even during this time. Plus, we have reason to believe that those two bodyguards of yours who orchestrated the attack on her at the mountain did so under your command, which strengthens our, and Her Majesty's, need to distance you from her. Even though she did not actually command us to, if you so much as even think about harming her, we will not hesitate to place you into the dungeons with Hans Westergard and your bodyguards. Do we make ourselves clear?" they threatened.

Bewildered by that speech, the duke didn't know what else to say to them.

As he was about to give up, he got a glance at Elsa behind the guards and, unable to control himself even in front of Elsa's guards, he promptly shouted. "Somebody stop that abomination! She'll kill us all if she's allowed to rule!"

Annoyed by the old man and making good on their fair warning, the guards then gripped the duke's arms and began dragging him to the dungeons.

"What are you people doing!? Elsa has no right to be queen! She's an outright murderer and a mistake of nature who must be stopped at once!" he yelled during the struggle.

* * *

Hearing that, Elsa turned around and saw the duke squirming and screaming nasty things about her while he was being dragged away to the castle. Some of the people saw too and turned their heads away, also annoyed by the duke's verbal assault against Elsa.

However, when some of them looked at their queen and noticed tiny snowflakes hovering around her head, they started to back away nervously. They knew she didn't do it on purpose, but their moving from her was instinctual.

"Don't pay any heed to that sour old man, Queen Elsa. He's probably just jealous because you have magic and he doesn't." said Kristoff who was also staring at the duke's rambling fit, but didn't notice the snowflakes until he turned and saw for himself.

Sven, who was with him, saw what was happening with Elsa and tilted his head in confusion at the spectacle.

"Uh, Elsa? What's with the snowflakes?" he asked.

Elsa looked at him in confusion and when Kristoff pointed upward to the problem, she also looked up and noticed the swirling flakes and gasped. She looked around and saw the people staring at her in confusion. Her magic was making another scene.

The appearance of the snowflakes reflected what happened in her room twice in her life.

Knowing the cause, Elsa focused on calming down. It was difficult due to the current circumstances, but she tried anyway and after awhile, the flakes disappeared.

"Are you feeling alright, Your Majesty?" Kai asked her.

"Y-yes. I'm fine." she said.

"Is it because of what that man said about you?" Kristoff asked.

"Yes, but it's more than that. What you just saw happens whenever I'm nervous, scared or sad. It's happened the first time when I was in my room on the day of my parents' funeral service three years back and just a while ago when I was alone in my room deeply troubled by today's events." Elsa explained.

"How'd you get it to stop?" Kristoff asked.

Elsa didn't even know the answer to that and gave out the only explanation she could think of.

"I don't know. I just thought about how everybody welcomed me back into the kingdom and how good it felt that nobody is persecuting me for my powers. I also thought about the happy times I had with Anna when we were children and then of Olaf as he represents my light side. I also thought of a saying my father taught me long ago that supposedly helped keep my powers in check."

"What saying?" Kai asked.

"He said, 'Conceal it. Don't feel it. Don't let it show'. Or 'Conceal, don't feel' for short." said Elsa.

"So, what you're saying, Your Majesty, is that thinking positive thoughts and that phrase your father, our late king, taught you, are the means of halting your magic whenever you are feeling negative and it goes out of control?" Kai asked.

"Correct." Elsa said. "But with how the last couple of days have been going, those are the only good memories I have so far. My father also gave me gloves because he believed they would help suppress my magic. Anything I touched would suddenly began to freeze. That's why I wore gloves every day, even on the day I was crowned queen. When Anna took my glove off during our . . . heated discussion at my ceremony about her wanting to marry Prince Hans despite barely meeting him for one day, I panicked and demanded for her to give it back to me because I felt my powers would be revealed without my gloves. But I later realized that covering my hands are ineffective because when I was locked in the dungeon with hand shackles clamped around my hands, I was still able to use my powers to escape. I figured that it was my sheer force of will and belief, and not my gloves, that contained my powers and keep them discreet all these years."

She hoped her explanation behind her problem eased the people watching.

"Sorry about that, everyone. It was just a little slip, nothing serious." she told them all.

The people understood and went back to their tasks.

Elsa walked over to a man, a baker, whose cart was missing a piece to hold it together and briefly and carefully shot a small blast of ice from her index finger at the cart's problem area to act as a replacement part.

The man tested his cart's movement and was happy that it worked again.

"Thank you, Your Majesty." the man said and walked away with his cart.

Elsa smiled weakly in gratitude and roamed around, looking for anyone else in need.

She noticed the frozen fjord and walked over to a wall with an opening that allowed one to view the outside perimeters and stared out into the open where she saw the trapped ships and again, her frozen sister, out in the open with Anna's body being tended to by a couple of guards as she instructed.

Seeing Anna's still form, Elsa was starting to think that putting Anna aside for her job may have been a tad harsh even though she had not intended to and was about to reconsider her plans and go out there when a little girl of about eight years of age approached Elsa. The same age Elsa was when she and Anna enjoyed what would be their final night of winter fun. She had short, black hair, brown eyes and freckles on her face, just like she and Anna had.

Seeing her reminded Elsa of that night and she wanted to back away from her out of fear of hurting her with her magic. But the child didn't look afraid at all and Elsa allowed the child to walk to her.

"Queen Elsa?" the child asked.

Elsa looked around and saw three people looking at the scene. One man, one woman and one boy. She guessed that they were this girl's family.

"Yes?" she asked her nervously.

"This is for you." she said and she slipped her right hand into her pocket and took out a small, flower. It was a rose. Unlike most flowers in the frozen kingdom, this one maintained its original form. Perhaps this flower was within the confines of the child's family home the whole time and that's what allowed it to survive the big freeze.

Elsa was touched by the gift. It was the first thing anyone's ever given to her since her return to power.

"I'm sorry about Princess Anna, Queen Elsa and I hope you will stay as our queen. My mommy, my daddy and my brother and I don't care about the winter because we know you didn't mean to make it and I still love your magic very much." the girl said.

Tears streamed down Elsa's face. She couldn't believe that this child was also very understanding of the situation like everybody else and that she didn't fear her as a monster for her powers despite her age.

Elsa took the rose in her hand and, unable to resist, and like she did with Olaf, she knelt down and hugged the child much to the shock and amazement of girl's parents as well as the crowds who stopped and stared in awe at the wonderful sight.

Elsa and the girl released each other.

"Thank you for the lovely flower. I really love it." Elsa said.

"You're welcome, Queen Elsa." said the girl. "I . . . also saw those men and that bad prince bring you back here earlier today while you were sleeping." the girl said, her face growing nervous.

Elsa looked confused and then figured she meant from the moment she was unconscious when Hans and the soldiers returned her to Arendelle.

"You did?" she asked.

The girl nodded.

"It's true, Your Majesty. Everyone saw, including us." said the girl's father who approached the queen and their daughter.

"What happened?" Elsa wanted to know.

The parents asked the girl to go play with her brother so that they can have some "grown-up time" with Elsa and the girl complied.

"Bye Queen Elsa." said the girl as she walked away.

When the girl was no longer present, Elsa's face changed from happy to serious.

"What happened with me while I was incapacitated?" Elsa asked the couple. She would not like what she was going to hear, but she could not help her curiosity.

The father rubbed the back of his head and sighed before giving his queen the details.

"When they came back with you, we saw Prince Hans, accompanied by several of your palace guards, riding back to Arendelle on his horse with you placed in front of him. Your hands and feet were bound with ropes while you were unresponsive. Probably their way as a precaution in case you woke up early and panicked."

Elsa's face loomed at the thought of being restrained and very vulnerable when she was out cold. Anything could have happened to her when she was like that. She could have been killed instantly by Hans or any of her captors or perhaps . . . violated in unimaginable ways and she could not fight back. The thought of that gave her chills and not the cold kind. She tried not to expose any snowflakes this time.

"Really?" Elsa asked. She rubbed her wrists just from being told that she was restrained there aside from the prison situation.

The man and his wife nodded.

"You looked so helpless, Your Majesty." said the wife. "Everybody all over the kingdom stopped their activities and glared anxiously at the scene and started whispering things like how they managed to get you and where they found you. When they neared the castle's entrance, Hans handed you over to three guards and told them to place you inside the dungeon which they did by carrying you away. We also saw them immediately arrest two men among them for what Hans called violating his order of not bringing any harm to you. We're not sure what he meant by that, but we have the feeling that it might have something to do with how you were brought back."

Elsa remembered the events that led to her capture. They were blurry in her mind for a moment, but she then started picking up the pieces to how it came to be. She wasn't sure how to put it as she didn't like to talk about it. But since they had told her how she was brought back to Arendelle, she felt it was fair to tell them what happened in return.

"After I fled Arendelle after my abilities were unwittingly exposed to everybody at the ceremony, I made my way up the North Mountain area. There, I built a large castle entirely out of ice with the help of my magic as a new home for me to live in. I wanted to be alone and away from society so that I could be free and to use my powers however I wanted without hurting anybody and I felt entirely relieved that I didn't have to hide myself anymore as it was very bothersome. I never got to fully embrace my magic due to fears of persecution and death threats against myself and my family. That is practically the whole reason why my family and my home were cut off from the public." Elsa began to explain.

She inhaled deeply and let out a sigh before getting to what she felt was the hard part of her story.

"The two men you said were arrested after I was brought back are bodyguards for the Duke of Weselton and they were part of Hans' search party. They entered my ice castle where they found and cornered me in one of the rooms. Both were armed with crossbow weapons. From there, I battled them with my magic because they . . . they tried to have me killed." Elsa turned her face away from them after uttering those words.

The couple gasped in fear. Now they knew what Hans meant when he had them arrested and imprisoned. They attempted regicide, the killing of a monarch or someone of royal status. Hans wanted to do it too, but those two nearly beat him to it.

"The search party found you so that they can kill you, Your Majesty?!" they asked with concern.

"No, no. Just the duke's men. Hans himself would later do the same thing as you all saw half an hour ago, but he wanted to wait until later when he had me alone. Anyways, he and the others were occupied with a bodyguard of my own, a snow monster of whom I conjured with my magic for personal protection. As for the Weselton men, when they entered my mountain residence and trapped me, I begged them to leave me be, but they ignored me and proceeded with their plot to kill me and so I fought back with the use of my powers. During the conflict, I grew enraged because they would not stop and eventually, I gained the upper hand against them. I trapped one of the assassins against the wall of my hideout with dangerous ice spikes pinning him and I started shoving the other one away and onto the castle's balcony with a large ice wall where he would fall off and into the abyss below. At that moment, I intended to kill them and I almost succeeded until Hans and his party entered the castle and approached the room where they all saw what was going on. Hans pleaded with me to stop. I looked at him and the guards and saw looks of worry on their faces and, realizing what I was doing, I stopped and tried to calm myself down because I was shocked that I nearly went too far in ending the fight in a horrific fashion. However, the Weselton guard who was pinned by my ice spikes tried to finish me off with his crossbow while I wasn't looking and Hans noticed that and rushed over to stop him. While the man did fire his weapon, I wasn't hit because Hans deflected the crossbow in the nick of time. However, the arrow from the man's crossbow was shot upward and it struck a chandelier hanging above us all, mostly me as I was standing right underneath it, and it fell. In a panic, I ran off to get away from the falling object and while I did, it crashed onto the ground and the impact made me lose balance and caused me to trip and fall. That is where I was knocked unconscious and is what I believe to be the part where Hans and the soldiers took me." Elsa explained.

Just speaking about that event made her feel uncomfortable.

The couple, and a few other people who couldn't help overhearing Elsa's story, were stunned by what they heard. Most were horrified at the part of her story of a deathmatch having taken place between her and the duke's guards. But this fear was not from Elsa admitting to almost killing them, it was more from how those two men tried to murder her just because of what she was and how they pushed her to do what she did in order to survive which they did not blame her for. She fled Arendelle out of intentions of keeping everyone safe from herself, or so she believed at the time, and what did those men do? They try to kill her.

Some of them were angered at how those two could do such a thing and perhaps felt the assassins kinda deserved what Elsa nearly did to them for angering her when she just wanted to be alone and be herself safely. They even suspected the duke for encouraging them to go through with it and hoped he got his just desserts for it.

By then, Elsa's eyes were swelling with tears again after recollecting on that horrid memory.

"I'm sorry you had to hear that. I'm just terrified that I caused all this and that I almost killed two people regardless of what they were trying to do. Even though they survived my ice magic, the same can't be said about . . . about Anna." she said, her voice shaking.

Saying Anna's name broke her again and she buried her face in her hands and started to cry and the snowflakes from before had returned. But the people watching didn't flinch from it this time because they knew why it happened.

"It's okay, your Majesty. All you wished for was to be alone after what happened here and those evil guards from Weselton provoked you into fighting them off. You were just defending yourself. There's nothing wrong with that." Kai tried to assure the upset young queen.

Seeing how upset Elsa was, most of the crowd gathered around her, not caring about the snowflakes floating around her again.

The guards from the castle noticed the gathering and knew something was wrong and that it involved Elsa. Half of them were dispatched to see what the problem was.

* * *

"Release me at once you heathens!" yelled the Duke.

Like with Hans, the guards also moved the duke harshly. He was placed in the same cell as his guards stayed in and they shut the door and departed.

"I'll spread the word about this when I get out of here! Do you hear me!?" the duke shouted.

"Calm down, Sire." said one of his thugs.

The duke spin around and glared at them with anger.

"Calm down!? How can I calm down when that witch is out there free to roam while we, this blasted kingdom's would-be saviors, are rotting down here for trying to stop her and save everybody? We did what was necessary for the kingdom and look where that's gotten us! Plus, you two failed to get rid of her when you had the chance! It was two of you and only one of her and yet she still defeated you!" he yelled at them.

"We were no match for her ice magic, Sire. She was too strong for us and nearly had us killed and we could've finished the job if 'Prince Stupid' in the cell next to us hadn't interfered." said one of the thugs.

"I heard that!" Hans yelled.

"You were supposed to!" the thug remarked smugly.

"I saved your lives when Elsa nearly killed you two back there! You should be grateful for that! Maybe I should have allowed Elsa to finish the both of you." Hans countered.

"At least we would have gone out with dignity and pride. That would've been a hell of a lot better than getting arrested by you and sitting here awaiting punishment from that wretched queen!"

"Why I oughta-!"

"ENOUGH!" yelled the duke.

The dungeon occupants stopped arguing immediately.

"Don't you fools see what's happening here? Elsa is causing us to turn against one another! Perhaps this is a side effect from that wicked magic of hers! What she is doing out there is just another plan she's cooked up to remain in power and fool the people into believing she's some kind of good-natured person and it's working! Our reasons for coming to Arendelle may differ, but the one goal all four of us possess is Elsa's demise and Arendelle's salvation."

The assassins and the foreign prince hadn't thought about that at all and realized the old man was right. Elsa really was their common enemy and look what has happened to them.

"Wow. You got a point there, Duke." Hans said from his cell.

"Of course I do! I mean, do you really believe someone like Elsa can have magic, kill her own sister and be virtuous? No! She's just poisoning the minds of the public and her workers with that false, sympathetic act of hers so that she can strike when they least expect it."

The thugs watched in silence while Hans heard every word the duke said from his spot.

Even the prince believed the duke was talking nonsense and he was the evil one around here. Evil? Yes. Crazy fool? No.

"We need to escape this dark, foreboding dungeon as soon as possible and find a way to get rid of Elsa once and for all before her plot hatches and Arendelle, and possibly other neighboring kingdoms, are doomed to suffer and die all because of her! I suggest that all four of us put our differences aside and cooperate to survive this issue." said the duke.

"Pardon me Sire, but even if we do slay Queen Elsa, Arendelle will be without a ruler again if we do that. Princess Anna was Elsa's only successor and she's gone now." one of the thugs said. "I don't know how this kingdom survived three years without a ruler since the ones before Elsa perished at sea, but without someone of royal blood to replace Elsa, Arendelle would probably fall even without the winter fiasco.

The duke looked at him and realized he was correct on that.

"Those statement you have made are true. Princess Anna may have been somewhat childish and the opposite of her sister, but at least she was without sorcery and were she still alive, I would rather have seen her on Arendelle's throne than Elsa. Only normal people have the right to rule a kingdom, not magic folks like that Elsa who put us here." the duke admitted.

His plot and, in his mind, reason to go after Elsa seemed pretty good to them. There was just one, teeny-tiny little problem with that and Hans was just about to voice it out.

"How do we get out of here?" he asked. "We have no magical means of escaping our cells like Elsa did."

The duke asked his men if they had any ideas and they began pondering.

They finished and explained it to the duke who smiled gleefully.

"Alright. When a guard comes to see to us, just act as if we're still depressed and the like.

Hans heard everything they said and he kept to himself. He knew the duke was slowly losing his sanity judging from his views about Elsa and the kingdom's current problem. While Hans was evil and manipulative, he wasn't psychotic like the duke and he figured he will need the old geezer and his goons if he was going to escape and perhaps he wouldn't mind a little revenge on Elsa for ruining his plans of being king. The power felt great to him when it lasted how he wished he could've kept it. No longer.

Another thing that separated Hans from the duke was that he didn't care about Anna and her icy death unlike the duke. He was glad that she was gone. One less obstacle to get in his way. A thing of the past.

_Elsa desired to be alone for years and she got her wish now. Perhaps I should say this directly to Elsa in her final moments before I, or they, end her._ he thought evilly. He may have lost the public's trust in him and may never again be able to obtain Arendelle's throne now that he was labeled a criminal, but to him, Elsa's death would be a good enough prize regardless of what would become of him.

In other words, his objective was to be a suicide mission. As long as Elsa dies, he didn't care for whatever penalty he was to receive for his actions. Life imprisonment and capital punishment were nothing to him now. Besides, his own family back in the Southern Isles never appreciated him. He admitted what life for him was like to Anna when they were "friends" and since he could not inherit the throne to his kingdom with him being the youngest of thirteen siblings, returning was out of the question for him and he had nothing else to lose but his life which, again, he did not care for.

* * *

**Holy crap! Are they for real? Hans, the duke and his guards are planning**** yet another attempt against Elsa? Will it work or will it fail?**

**If things go too far, will Elsa have to fight back despite her fear of hurting people with her magic?**

**At least you all got to see what happened to the Puke (as I call him on account of my hatred for him after what he had tried to do in the movie. Yes, I know it's just a film, but still. Doesn't it make you wanna knock his lights out or something?) during Elsa's attempt to make amends to all of Arendelle. What a foolish and delusional prick he's becoming. Even though Elsa has won over everyone and is their queen again, it looks as if the man from Weaseltown is starting to lose it. If this story took place in modern times, he'd probably be locked up in the wacky shack for a long time. I know they had mental institutions back in those days, but they operated differently than the mental hospitals of today.**

**Even the duke's own bodyguards are probably thinking that cuckoo sound heard from grandfather clocks to symbolize their duke's grip on reality. I know I am.**

**Take care.**


	5. Chapter 5

**I've done it again. There is a part somewhere in this chapter that further explains how Elsa was taken back to Arendelle after the incident at the ice castle. I'm sure other Fanfiction members have written their own versions on that and this is my own. **

**Read away.**

* * *

"Alright everyone! Make way! Palace patrol coming through!" the guards shouted as they shoved their way through the large gathering of people to get to Elsa.

When they reached her, they saw her with snowflakes floating above her and her head lowered. A person from the crowd told the guards that the floating snowflakes meant that she was disturbed by something which she said so herself.

"Your Majesty! What's wrong? What happened here?" one of them asked when they noticed Elsa was upset again.

Elsa looked at the guard with red, tear stained eyes. She was curious of why they were here until she realized that the crowd around her must have drawn their attention and made their protection training kick in.

"Oh, it's nothing serious. I was just reminded about my sister and how things went since I came back to Arendelle after the ice castle incident. It was just another emotional slip. I'm sorry that my personal issues have alerted you." Elsa explained. She felt embarrassed that her guards were summoned by her emotional outburst.

The guards relaxed their alertness once they knew of the situation.

"Oh. Did you remember what went on back there when we . . . found you, Your Majesty?" asked the head of the guards. They were the same ones that ventured with Hans to the mountains and captured Elsa as well as the ones who helped convince Elsa to reclaim her place as queen.

"Yes. I told that to a family here who asked how it happened and I told them everything up to the point I was captured." Elsa answered. She also said that the memory of that incident and Anna's death disturbed her to the point of breaking down which is what drew the people to her.

"Okay. And, my apologies for asking my queen, but do you wish to know how we brought you back? I just felt that you deserved to know since you were not awake when it happened." the guard leader said, hoping his words didn't upset Elsa again.

"Well, the people I spoke to told me what the scene looked like when I was brought back unconscious on Hans' horse. But yes, I wish to know the full details of my return starting with how I was taken from my ice castle when I was incapacitated."

The guards became nervous because they believed that their queen would become angry and hurt if they told her the truth and with her cryokinetic abilities and how she used them against the duke's guards . . .

While she had no mind-reading powers to go with her magic, Elsa knew what they were thinking.

"Don't worry. I won't hold anything against you and the other guards for what happened. As everyone is with me, I too hold no hard feelings of any kind against you for supporting Prince Hans." Elsa assured them. It was true. She did not hate anyone who unwillingly or unwittingly played their part in Hans' plans. They were just misled by him and she did not blame them for it.

"Please, I just want the truth." Elsa pleaded.

The head guard swallowed and proceeded to tell Queen Elsa what she wanted to hear.

"As you wish, Your Majesty."

* * *

Elsa laid unconscious on the floor in the middle of the main room in full view of the Southern Isles prince, the two Weselton killers and her own castle guards. Aside from the physical trauma of being knocked out by the chandelier, no external injuries were present on her. No cuts, scrapes or open wounds. Perhaps a whopping headache is all she might get when she came to eventually.

Hans and the soldiers stared at the unconscious queen, unsure of what to do next now.

Hacking sounds were heard and the men turned their heads in its direction and saw the Weselton man pinned to the wall hacking away at the icicles with a knife to free himself. His partner from the balcony did the same thing with the block of ice that almost pushed him off the ledge to his death.

The guards helped them out until they were free.

Eyeing Elsa, the Weselton assassins swiped two of the guards' swords and ran over to her, intent on finishing her off now that she was defenseless and not caring that they were vastly outnumbered.

Four of the guards stopped them and forced them outside the room to keep Elsa safe from them.

"Get out!" they yelled at them.

Hans and the remaining soldiers, the captain included, gathered around Elsa.

"What now, Prince Hans?" asked the captain.

Without looking at them, Hans answered "We take her back to Arendelle."

The prince knelt down over Elsa and scooped her up in his coated arms bridal style.

The guards worried that physical contact with Elsa might freeze Hans, but nothing of that sort happened.

"Let's go." Hans said.

He turned around and started to walk out of the room with the guards and the captain following him from behind.

Approaching the stairs, Hans continued to carry her as he walked down, being careful not to drop her.

When he and the guards made it back outside and to their horses, Hans approached his horse. The four soldiers from earlier were there aiming their swords at the backs of the two assassins.

"Someone hand me some ropes." Hans said.

"You wish to restrain the assassins? Good idea." the guard captain asked, thinking Hans wanted to restrain the thugs in case they wanted another shot at the queen.

"Well, I was actually talking about Queen Elsa, but go ahead with that anyway." he stated. The guards were stunned.

"You wish to ensnare the queen in bindings?" the captain asked.

"I regret this myself, captain. But after encountering that snow beast of hers, nearly getting myself killed in the process and what we've seen her do to the Duke's bodyguards, which I kind of admit you two deserved after you disobeyed my order not to harm her," he said that part angrily to the two assassins being kept under watch by the guards and restored his speaking voice back to its original tone before saying the next part of his speech, "I cannot risk her repeating those things to us if she awakens before we reach Arendelle." Hans said.

Unable to defy the man that their princess had named a regent of Arendelle in her place, the guards gathered the item in question and gave it to Hans.

Hans asked a guard for help in holding Elsa still so he can tie the bindings on her easily and the soldier obeyed. Elsa was held in place as Hans secured one patch of rope around her wrists and the second patch around her ankles.

"She is . . . secure, Your Highness." the guard who helped Hans said in regret. He and the guards feared the queen may be angered by this later on and might do who knows what to them in retaliation.

"Good." Hans said and he hopped onto his horse and requested the guards to hand the captive queen over to him and they did. To prevent Elsa from falling off in the middle of the ride back to Arendelle, Hans let her sit in front of him with his arms draped under her arms to grip her better whilst holding onto his horse's reins. A two-in-one combination.

At Hans' suggestion, the guards also wrapped the duke's men in rope and the captain threatened to have them severely punished through physical means if they moved even one suspicious inch outside of walking with them, not caring for whatever the duke had to say if that were to ever happen. To play it safe, they were ordered to march ahead so that everyone can keep an eye on them if they tried anything funny. Two guards held them in place while the other two had the killers' own crossbows aimed at them.

The time it took to make it back to Arendelle replicated the amount of time it had taken the search party to find Elsa's ice castle. Nobody said a word throughout the retreat.

Elsa was still unconscious and still bound during the trip.

The party soon returned to the ice-covered kingdom where, upon arrival, the villagers saw them and when they spotted their magical queen alongside them bound and unmoving, they stared and began to murmur to one another. Some had actually thought Elsa was dead, but Hans merely stated that she was just incapacitated for the moment and was still alive.

They passed by the onlookers until they reached the castle. Upon stopping, Hans looked at the guard captain and said, "Lock the two criminals in the castle dungeon immediately."

"Yes, Your Highness." said the captain.

Snapping his fingers, the guards quickly gathered the assassins and told them to start marching.

The two protested as they were taken away roughly while Hans watched for a few moments, waiting until the guards reported back to him about the prisoners.

Minutes later, the guards returned to Hans.

"Are they fully secured in the prison?" the prince asked.

"Affirmative, Your Highness. We've placed them in one cell and chained them down. It's safe to place Queen Elsa back into the castle without any worry from those two now." the guards answered.

Hans's face deepened and informed the guards, with a hint of false regret, that he was going to place Elsa inside the same dungeon.

"What? But Your Highness, those two may try to-" the captain started to say until he was interrupted by Hans.

"I'm aware of that. I intend to place the queen in a cell very distant from the other two to keep her safe from them. However, while she is in there, I do ask that nobody refer to her as a prisoner, inmate, captive or anything like that as I find those terms unsuitable for her since she is still the queen." Hans said.

Just then, Kai and Gerda, two of the most trusted servants in Elsa and Anna's family, appeared and overheard everything. They started coming when they heard the fuss that the duke's men were making on their way to the dungeon and wished to know what the hubbub was.

"Prince Hans, we really wish you would reconsider that option. In spite of what Her Majesty has done with her abilities, she still does not deserve to be locked away like some lowlife criminal. What she did around here was all an accident and she could not help it." Kai protested.

Gerda helped him out. "He is right. We know Queen Elsa would never do this on purpose. It all happened because she was frightened by the events of her crowning ceremony and the people's fear of her powers, and the duke's view of her only made it worse. She has been isolated in her bedroom and away from society for most of her life back when she was a princess because she was fearful of being discovered as a conjurer of magic and you know how most people treat those kind of people. If she awakens to find she has been locked away again, she will be utterly afraid, feel persecuted and maybe even traumatized as it will surely surface any painful memories of her childhood. She should be placed somewhere more soothing for her like the study or the throne room or even the chapel."

"I'm sorry about Queen Elsa's troubled past and for what I'm about to do with her now, and I'm flattered by your alternate options of where to place the queen, but my way is for the best. But rest assured, she will be treated with fairness and kindness to help her cope with her stay in the dungeons and it will separate her reason for being there from the reason the duke's men are there." said Hans.

Disturbed by the prince's decision, nevertheless, Kai, Gerda and the palace guards allowed Hans to carry the queen to her new location. He also asked that they keep the duke from seeing this because, knowing him from his behavior about Elsa, he would just brag, insult Elsa again and probably demand a harsher way of dealing with her like death or something.

Not having been in the dungeon himself, Hans had three guards help lead him there.

Walking inside, Hans was led to a cell on the other side of the prison. Since the cells had wooden doors on them compared to cell doors with bars on them and preventing occupants from seeing outside, he took care not to let the duke's men see Elsa being carried there otherwise they might make insulting remarks about the situation.

"Let us out! We wish to speak with our boss!" they demanded.

Hans and the soldiers ignored their requests and kept moving.

"This will suffice, Your Highness." said one of the guards.

"Thank you." Hans said to him.

The door opened and Hans stepped inside and laid Elsa on top of a bench in a sitting position.

Noticing shackles that resembled gloves on the ground in the middle of the cell's floor, Hans requested them and one guard got them and gave them to the prince.

Hans untied the ropes holding Elsa's hands and feet together and placed her hands inside the shackled and secured them tightly, but not too tight to cut off circulation, just enough to prevent Elsa from getting them off when she woke up. He hoped that the shackles would keep Elsa from using her ice magic.

"Are there any more blankets in the castle?" Hans asked the guards.

"Yes, Your Majesty. We still have more." said a guard.

"Please bring one here. It's for Queen Elsa."

"Right away." said the guard and he left to get a blanket while Hans gently laid Elsa on her back on the bench.

He returned soon and Hans took the cloak and draped it over the queen.

"Let us leave. I will return to check on her in a short while." Hans said.

He and the guards exited the cell and Hans closed the door and locked it.

They left the dungeon and returned to deal with the people and the crisis.

Elsa was left alone in her own cell.

* * *

"That is all, my queen." said the captain and he finished with his story.

Elsa showed no emotion other than a blank look. Despite what Elsa said before hearing the truth, everybody, guards, Kai, Kristoff, Sven and civilians, all stared, pondering how their magical queen would react.

Was she calm or was she going to go back on her word and unleash her magic in anger?

"Your Majesty? Are you feeling okay?" Kai asked.

After not uttering a sound, Elsa turned to face Kai.

"Yes. I'm just trying to digest what I just heard." she explained.

The guard leader proceeded to give another apology to Elsa for her capture and treatment, but Elsa stopped him with an open palm. She was calm enough to avoid shooting any unintentional ice blasts from her hand.

"Please, there's no need for that. I'm grateful you told me the truth as I requested and I know that you and the guards mean well, even when I was a prisoner in my own home and was nearly punished for all this and I know how sorry you all are for what you did to me. The important things are that everybody has voluntarily allowed me back as their queen, I'm willing to resume my role as Arendelle's ruler, I'm trying to make amends to those who have been affected by my own errors and my enemies are sitting in the dungeon where they cannot hurt me again. Those are good enough for me." Elsa explained.

The guards and the nearby civilians were baffled that their queen was willing to let bygones be bygones. With her powers, she could extract a chilling vengeance upon them for victimizing her, but she is choosing not to. Of course, the forgiveness she displayed did not count for Hans Westergard, the Duke of Weselton and his two bodyguards. Of all the people she would never forgive for trying to ruin her, it was them.

Changing the subject, the guard captain asked, "Speaking of the prisoners, Your Majesty. What shall we do with them?"

Elsa thought it over. While still unwilling to have a word with any of them just yet, she knew that expelling them from Arendelle without them fatally freezing was difficult and perhaps impossible since they carried no immunity to cold weather like she did.

Sailing away was currently unavailable since the ships were still trapped in the frozen waters, and executing them felt squeamish to her. As queen, she did have the authority to carry that type of sentence out, but she felt it would make her just as bad as them, royal or not.

Elsa may dislike them for what they've done to her, but, unless they gave her no choice, she refused to kill them.

She explained these things to the guard and told them that until she can learn how to end the eternal winter, she didn't have the heart to send them out to their chilly deaths or sentence them to capital punishment and insisted that they remain prisoners in Arendelle.

In other words, she hated their guts so much, but she did not believe in taking lives. One was enough as it was and she nearly claimed two at the mountains.

"Deliver them water and whatever sustenance we have available for them. They are going to be here for a long time until further notice. Oh, and if possible, see if you can light up the fireplaces in the castle for anyone inside and make a firepit out here for the people to keep warm when you can." said Elsa.

"It shall be done, Queen Elsa." said the guard captain.

Elsa asked that all but two guards stay and help her. Even with magic, she still acquired extra hands.

The captain agreed with her and sent only two guards to tend to the criminals and the chosen guards turned and walked back to the castle.

"You sure you don't wish to have those dirtbags executed, Elsa? I mean you're the queen and after what they've done, they kinda deserve it, don't you think?" said Kristoff.

"While I _can_ do that due to my status, I'm not the killing type. Hans tried to kill me in three ways in one day and the duke's hired hands tried it too and I don't wish to stoop to their level. If, however, they commit suicide at any time during their imprisonment here, not that I want them too, then that would be their own fault." Elsa told him.

Kristoff guessed he can accept Elsa's choice. Were he the ruler of this place, he'd probably have them executed if they tried to kill him. But then, he felt that Anna would have disapproved of that sort of act and perhaps resorted to punching them in the face. God knows they deserve that kind of punishment.

* * *

**Wow, I'm chock full of ideas for this story. Whaddya think? The next chapter will focus on the Criminal 4 once again and their evil plan. What kind of sick, diabolical plot do they have cooked up against Elsa? How will it be done? Will Elsa survive their plot, discover how to bring Anna back to life and, above all, save Arendelle from her own frosty mistake? **

**Stay tuned!**

**Plus, I saw that new Frozen Fever short. It was amazing! I also discovered that they are gonna do another Frozen movie and I really hope it comes to theaters when it's finished and not straight to dvd and blu-ray. Theatrical films(at least some of them) do better than instant home releases. They nearly did the same thing with Toy Story 2 and I'm glad they didn't otherwise the movie might have been lame and Toy Story 3 may have not done better than it did back in 2010 if they didn't show it in theaters. Of course, that's my opinion on the topic.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hi everybody. It's time to go back in the dungeon to check up on our four most hated prisoners. They said they had a plan to extract revenge on Elsa, let's see what they've got cooked up for her.**

* * *

The four prisoners sat silently in their cells, waiting for anybody to come by. It was getting lonely in there despite there being more than one person.

After coming up with a plan on killing Elsa, they each pondered on how to carry it out. The duke wished to kill Elsa under the belief of saving Arendelle from her. He was starting to act like a mentally deranged preacher who thinks he is saving society from evil and from his point of view, Elsa was an unholy demon who he believed would unleash a winter apocalypse with her magic if not dealt with.

Hans just wanted to end Elsa out of petty revenge for what she and Anna had done to him.

A door suddenly opened and footsteps could be heard. It was one of the castle guards Elsa had sent to check up on the prisoners.

"Who goes there? Is that you, Elsa?" the duke asked in a paranoid manner and backed away from the cell door.

"No. I am but a palace guard bringing you something to eat. It's the least Her Majesty can do." said the guard. He carried a portable cart holding four plates and four cups, one for each person. They consisted of a slice of bread topped with a piece of Arendellian salmon. The cups were filled with drinking water, though chilled by room temperature from the cold weather.

"Why would she do that? Is this to be a final meal for us before she puts us all to death?" the duke questioned.

"Queen Elsa has no plans of executing any of you, so what I'm giving you is not to be your last." the guard said and explained Elsa's reason for sparing them a death sentence and for not banishing them because of the cold and told them that they should consider themselves lucky that she is allowing them to live despite their crimes against her and her late sister.

The guard approached Hans' cell first and entered with one plate and cup.

Hans stood and stared at the guard and then at what he held with an emotionless face.

The guard placed the items on the bench.

"Enjoy." he said flatly.

"How exactly?" Hans asked and presented his covered hands to demonstrate his point.

"I'm certain you can figure it out yourself with that manipulative mind of yours." the guard told him and left the fallen prince and regent to deliver the rest of the food and drinks to the Weselton foreigners.

"How long are we to remain imprisoned in this dungeon?" The duke asked.

"Until Her Majesty learns how to remove the winter. She'll probably expel all four of you back to your homelands if she does. So the answer to your question is indefinite. In other words, forever."

"What?! Over my dead body we will stay here forever!" the duke protested.

"That shouldn't be long. At least your time here won't be as long as the others." the guard replied, referring to the duke's age and elderly appearance which infuriated the old man.

"How dare you!" the duke yelled.

Hans laughed from his cell.

"Silence, you oaf!" yelled the duke.

"Knock it off, both of you." said the guard.

While the guard wasn't looking, one of the Weselton men inched close to the unsuspecting guard and grabbed him by the waist and hurled him back against one of the walls.

The guard slammed his head and was rendered unconscious quickly.

The duke was rather impressed by what his henchman had done.

"Excellent work." he said.

"Thank you, Your Grace." said the man.

With the guard down, the other bodyguard quietly snagged two keys from the guard's side belt. One key was to their shackles and the other was to the dungeon's cell doors. Their own door was already open since the guard left it like that, assuming he was going to just deliver the food to the prisoners and be on his way without any trouble from them. He was wrong.

"Now let us free ourselves and go deal with that unholy woman." the duke said.

Unlike Hans, the Weselton natives were wearing regular shackles that left their hands exposed and not the ones Hans was currently wearing and the ones Elsa wore some time ago.

The thugs freed themselves first and then the duke later and they stepped out of their cells.

"Did you three release yourselves from your binds and cells?" Hans called out as he heard the clattering of chains.

"Yes." said the duke as he and his men approached his cell.

"Then would you kindly release me?" the prince said with slight sarcasm.

The duke used the key to open Hans' cell and freed him as well.

"Finally." he said and rubbed his hands and wiggled his fingers to stretch them out. He now knew how Elsa felt when she wore them. But he still felt only she deserved them and not him.

"You know Prince Hans, if the little argument between that castle guard and myself and your laughter from his spiteful remark about me were not part of our escape plan, I'd most certainly leave you here to rot, or freeze, given the current situation." the duke admitted sternly. As much as the duke despised the guards' mockery of him and Hans laughing at him, it was all a ruse to get out and the duke had to take it in order for it to work.

"Whatever you say. Let's just proceed with our plan."

Before leaving, Hans looked down at his meal tray. He hadn't had a bite to eat for a long time and couldn't remember the last time he ate. The duke thought their meals would be their last and since the prince was to embark on what he believed would be his fourth and final mission of regicide against Elsa which would probably involve getting himself killed doing it, he thought that perhaps the food sitting before him may be the last thing he might ever eat.

He consumed the sandwich and gulped it down with the cup of water as he walked out of his cell to join up with his cellmates. The sandwich reminded him of his talk with Anna on the night Elsa became Arendelle's new queen because the princess mentioned sandwiches and Hans had to admit what he ate just now made that memory ironic.

Hearing the dungeon door open again, they reacted with surprise and saw a second palace guard, another sent by Elsa, walking by and was surprised to see the four prisoners out of their cells.

Before he could alert anyone, Hans quickly threw his water cup at the guard and it hit his head and soon, like the first guard, he too was knocked out.

Phase 1 of their plan was complete: obtaining the keys to their cells and the dungeon exit.

Now for phase 2: obtaining disguises. Being recognizable to the public, there was no way they were getting near Elsa or go anywhere without somebody pointing them out and alerting the queen's soldiers which will ultimately jeopardize their mission which was why they were in need of some sort of camouflage.

The duke's henchmen took a few moments to swap uniforms with the downed guards.

Dressed exactly like Arendelle castle guards, the duke instructed his men to go out and look for and retrieve extra soldier uniforms for him and Hans while they remained behind. Another part of their scheme.

"At once, Your Grace." said the two and they walked to the dungeon door and exited and were now free to explore the castle grounds.

They took great care to avoid raising suspicion from nearby castle employees.

A maid walked by and saw them, making the assassins nervous that their cover will be compromised.

Instead, the maid simply said to them, "Greetings gentlemen. I assume Queen Elsa is doing well out there?"

To keep up their cover, one of the disguised thugs replied, "Yes, Her Majesty is experiencing no problems. We just came back from our inspection of the prisoners as she ordered."

"I see. I hope those dastardly people get what they deserve. That duke has been very rude to Queen Elsa ever since her magical side was revealed and I think he should be expelled from Arendelle along with those two men of his who tried to slay our misunderstood queen and especially that despicable Prince Hans. He sure fooled us all, putting on a charming behavior on the outside and later showing his true colors underneath. How could he do such a thing to Princess Anna and Queen Elsa? That's just terrible! If I were the queen, I'd give 'em what they truly deserve and that's . . ." she said before the two interrupted her rambling.

"Uh, ma'am. While we'd like to stay and share our fair share of criticism of the prince and his cellmates, we really need to get back to our jobs." said one of them.

"Oh, of course. I apologize for taking up your time, gentlemen. Carry on."

"We will." said the phony guards and the maid left them.

When the coast was clear, they resumed their task.

"I'd thought that woman would never cease her chattering." one said.

"Tell me about it. Another minute with her and I would have silenced her myself despite our job of being stealthy." said the other, rolling his eyes.

By sheer luck, the two found an armory that was filled with not only weaponry, but also with a large cabinet full of official palace guard uniforms.

"Perfect." they whispered to each other.

They wrapped two uniforms inside a couple of blankets to hide them from view and they even took a couple of crossbows, their favorites. They were not the ones they used to battle Elsa since theirs were either missing or destroyed when they were thrown in the dungeons, but they still knew how to use crossbow weapons.

They also found some facial scarves which would hide their identities a lot better than the uniforms and hats alone. Plus, the weather made it all the more reason to cover their faces. They put them on, took two more to give to the duke and Hans and they exited the armory and headed back to the dungeon with their new supplies.

Another palace guard bumped into them.

"Where are you two going with those items in your hands and why are you wearing those scarves around your faces?" the guard asked them.

"These are blankets. Queen Elsa ordered us to bring them to the prisoners as a means of keeping them warm during this time." said one thug, hoping the soldier would buy the lie.

"Ah yes, I remember. Her Majesty made it her policy to keep the prisoners alive during their incarceration until further notice. Good thinking." the guard said. Apparently, he did.

Remembering what the previous guard had said about Elsa's refusal to have them killed, the fake guards nodded their heads and played along. "Exactly." they said together.

"And the crossbows are for . . .?" the guard questioned.

"Protective measures in the event the prisoners get rough with us when we make our delivery." the assassins told the man.

"That makes sense." the guard said.

"As for the scarves, they're for protection from the cold air. Without them, we might end up contracting weather-related illnesses and that would not suit well with us or anybody with how things are going." they lied.

The guard thought it over while the two false soldiers refrained from showing any signs of nervousness.

"You make a perfectly good point there. I should acquire a scarf myself to get me by. Sorry for stopping you two. Dismissed." he said.

"With pleasure." the duke's henchmen replied and walked away with the guard doing the same thing.

_Foolish people._ they thought and walked until they have returned to the dungeon and met up with the duke and the Southern Isles prince.

"Did you get what we need?" the duke asked.

"We have, Your Grace." the thugs said and unwrapped the blankets to reveal the uniforms.

"Excellent work. Now you two keep watch on the exit while Prince Hans and I change into these clothes in separate cells."

The bodyguards did as they were told as Hans and the duke both entered empty cells to begin changing.

Several minutes later, Hans stepped out of his cell donned in his new uniform disguise.

The duke was taking a tad longer than Hans and his hired goons put together.

"Are you dressed yet?" Hans called out.

Unfortunately for the duke, he was experiencing trouble in putting on his guard uniform as it was too tall for him.

"Are all the uniforms around here like this? Honestly!" the duke complained. None of the others realized that the duke was short in height and they simply forgot.

Finally, the duke stepped out of his own cell and his appearance made Hans snicker while the henchmen remained quiet since they had no sense of humor for anything. The uniform hung from the duke like loose skin. It was like a child dressed in adult clothing. It was quite embarrassing for the duke.

The duke glared eyes at the prince.

"You think this is funny, Prince Hans?" the duke angrily asked. He was reminded of Elsa and Anna laughing at his baldness at the former's party when his false hair flopped from his head after bowing to them.

"Of course I do. How is it not?" Hans admitted blankly in front of the duke's wrinkled face, not caring how the duke felt.

Before the duke could yell at him, Hans dismissed his own laughter and shushed the duke by reminding them that it was now time for the next and final phase of their plot: escape the dungeon and kill Queen Elsa.

However, before that can be carried out, Hans thought of something.

"Wait." he said.

"Why the delay, Prince Hans?" one of the disguised thugs asked.

"Yes, Hans. Why do you stop us?" the duke asked.

"Because I now realize that your presence among us may give us away too early." Hans explained which left the duke puzzled from Hans' change of plans and Hans gave another explanation.

"Well Duke, aside from your . . . rugged appearance if you will, even if you dressed in a uniform that suited you fine, the thing that I suspect would allow someone to recognize us regardless is your height. Even in disguise, we will still be exposed to all if any of Elsa's soldiers noticed that one of their own is . . . I'll just call it 'out of place'. Before we were brought here, did you happen to see any Arendelle soldiers that were the exact height as you?" Hans explained.

The duke looked down at himself and realized Hans was correct. Every guard around the kingdom was tall and, not counting Arendelle's children, he was the only short person around. A big giveaway for them if he ventured with them uniform or not.

"Curses! I did not notice that. But then how can I go with you without someone suspecting me?" he asked.

"Why don't you stay here while your bodyguards and I go on ahead." Hans suggested.

"He may be right on this one, Your Grace." said the thugs.

"What? You actually agree with him?" the duke asked outrageously. He was starting to feel a little betrayed by what his own hired men were telling him.

"Perhaps rather than kill Queen Elsa out there, I suggest we lure her down here with us as her escorts and when we have her alone with no real protection, we'll all be free to kill her with nobody around to witness her death. It's similar to what we told Hans on how he could have handled the queen when he first brought her here as a prisoner." said one of the goons.

"Hey, that's not such a bad idea. I like that one better than our old plot." Hans agreed.

With that said, the duke nonetheless agreed to this new change in plan.

"Very well. We will try it your way, Prince Hans. But I want a full guarantee from you that this will work and that I too am to get a fair share in the glory of Elsa's demise." the duke demanded.

"You have my word, Your Grace. Before today's end, Queen Elsa will die by our hands and we will accomplish it together. She will stand no chance against the combined might of all four of us." Hans said and placed his arm across his chest and his hand upon his shoulder to signify his promise.

"See that you do. Elsa has Arendelle in her icy grip and we must stop her at all costs." the old man replied.

Hans turned around and prepared to walk to the exit. Before the duke's goons could follow, he motioned for them to come closer to him so he can say one more thing to them.

"Make sure he fulfills his vow and this time, do not fail me. Understand?" he demanded.

"Yes, Your Grace." said the two assassins.

They followed Hans out of the dungeon while the duke stood watching before taking a seat in his old cell and waited. All he could think of right now was putting an end to Elsa's "tyranny" as soon as possible and in his twisted faltering mind, he would be hailed and beloved as a hero for his actions, kind of like how Hans believed the same when he framed Elsa for Anna's then-false death in the castle and turned her own kingdom against her and later tried to murder her out in the fjord.

While the incapacitated castle guards in the dungeon were against them, the duke still had no desire to kill them despite them putting him in chains. His only target was Elsa herself and nobody else. He felt they were simply misguided by her and were in need of saving.

Speaking of Hans, deep down he had no intention of keeping his word to the duke of sharing Elsa's death with him. It was but another ruse and, like everyone before his dark side was revealed, the duke fell for it like the foolish, old man that he was. Once he was within range of Elsa, he would simply kill her himself right in front of everybody regardless of the fact that he would be vastly outnumbered and either sent back into the dungeons or killed.

He had no place and future in Arendelle anymore and even if Elsa's winter curse was lifted, he could not return to his home in the Southern Isles because he believed he would not welcomed back by his family or his people there and they would probably have him executed or put in prison for the rest of his life once word got out about his actions in Arendelle and he heavily doubted that other kingdoms in the world, especially those on close friendly terms with Arendelle, would ever grant him asylum if he fled after murdering Elsa because they would also learn about his deeds in time and will seek to punish him and he refused to accept life in prison and life on the run from the law would be exhausting and so he would rather die than go through those things.

In his eyes, Elsa was the reason for his troubles and misery and now he was determined to pay her back for it.

_Long live the queen._ Hans thought mockingly.

* * *

**Ohhh. Elsa better watch her back because her worst enemies are coming for her! Sure, Hans _can_ wait to kill Elsa when she's alone and disappear forever afterwards rather than risk it all like he's planning now, but his thirst for revenge is blocking his strategic side and he's impatient. **

**Will they succeed at killing her or not? Will Elsa fight them off and perhaps might have to kill them if it comes to that? When will she learn the secret to ending the Great Freeze and above all, is there a way to bring Anna back to life or will she be doomed to remain frozen for eternity? **

**The wait is killing me just as much as you! **

***does the "AAAUUUGGGHHH" scream like in the Charlie Brown cartoons.***


	7. Chapter 7

**Now that the prisoners are free and roaming around Arendelle in search of their frosty target with the exception of the wrinkly Puke of Weselton who's sitting in his cell hoping for the possibly false chance of ambushing and exterminating Elsa, how will things turn out? Will Hans actually kill her in front of everybody just like he planned on doing? Will someone defend Elsa again like Anna did if he tries it? Will Elsa tend to Anna later on and arrange a royal funeral for her or will Anna defrost and reunite with Elsa like she did in the film? Go on and find out for yourselves, then!**

* * *

Elsa accompanied her royal guards in gathering firewood, not wanting to stand back and watch. While half of them did the gathering, the other half were busy constructing a pit in the middle of the village square to place the fire material in.

Some of the villagers lent helping hands to finish the job faster.

The foreign dignitaries, who were present, also gave assistance.

Even though everyone in Arendelle was wearing winter clothing to get through the weather plague, Elsa's order to have the pit built was because she felt they deserved better.

Elsa plopped her armful of firewood into the unfinished pit and stopped for a moment to observe the red rose given to her by that little girl a while ago. She placed it in her hair prior to collecting wood. It was the only gift she had ever received after her secret got out and accidentally caused Arendelle's winter apocalypse and it was another piece of proof to her that she was embraced by society rather than feared. Olaf was right earlier, Elsa was wanted because of who she was instead of her short belief of them fearing she would kill them all with her magic if rejected.

She was starting to think that perhaps she and her parents should have come forth with the truth years ago rather than go into hiding all because of one, little accident and perhaps this wouldn't have happened. Sure, some might have freaked out from seeing her powers as they did at her ceremony, a natural reaction of witnessing uncommon and misunderstood things for the first time, but the people would have eventually grown to admire her abilities and enjoy being around her more often like they do now. She let her fears run her life and Arendelle's crisis, the attempts on her life by four outsiders, and Anna's death, were the results, evidence that living in fear instead of accepting oneself was a bad thing.

The deaths of her and Anna's parents overseas three years ago might also have had something to do with Elsa and her fears, but the answer to that mystery died with them in the ocean and it may never be solved and Elsa would never know until her time came in the future. Yes, she was a believer of there being life after death. Everybody around the world had their views on what happens after death and Elsa believed in something like that after one dies. Elsa may be magical, but she was not immortal and she hoped her parents were in a better place and she will want to ask them the purpose of their ocean voyage upon her own death one day. She assumed Anna was with them right now, either letting out some steam for keeping her and Elsa apart for thirteen long, lonely years and they were probably apologizing to her for doing that and denying them perfect, happy childhoods or she was looking down on Elsa while stuffing herself with all the chocolate and sandwiches she could consume despite being dead.

Elsa may have made a bad first impression on her first night as queen, but now that didn't matter anymore. What mattered was moving on and being there for the kingdom who accepted her as their leader which was the first step in the healing process.

With much wood collected and piled together in the middle of the village square for all to see, now came the task of lighting it up. The only problem? There was hardly any fire around to lit the pit with and Elsa believed her spell may have extinguished any fire in the kingdom when it struck.

"Now all we need is some fire to light the pit with. If only there was any around and I had fire magic to go with my ice powers." Elsa exclaimed. She was starting to think that the construction of the pit was for nothing.

"Actually, Your Majesty," the Spanish dignitary began to say in a Spanish accent and Elsa and the others within earshot turned to look at him. "I seem to recall your castle's library having a fully lit fireplace where we last spoke with Prince Hans and Princess Anna before we and that foul-mouthed duke left to give them some privacy. However, due to Prince Hans' eventual betrayal to Princess Anna and you just recently, I'm guessing he's probably done something to put it out, which I hope I'm wrong about, to speed up Princess Anna's freezing process before returning to us to give his false claim of marrying your sister and being Arendelle's new monarch." The Spanish man hated bringing up that last part up, but his explanation made sense.

Elsa was terrified at the possible thought of Hans doing such a dreadful thing when she was still locked up in the dungeon. She then remembered him telling her that Anna wasn't back yet when she asked for her, remembering that she expelled her, Kristoff and Olaf from her mountain castle by creating Marshmallow. She hoped her giant snow guardian didn't do any serious harm to them. She just wanted to be alone and she couldn't think of any other way to convince Anna to leave when she refused to.

Elsa wasn't sure if Hans was honest or lying about Anna's whereabouts when he and her spoke before her escape from captivity. She thought up two possibilities: Anna was back in the castle the whole time during her imprisonment and Hans simply lied to her about her not having returned to Arendelle or he was right and she really didn't return until later. Both theories, however, had one thing in common: Hans was a traitor and the dignitaries, the palace guards and the villagers all saw Anna rushing out onto the frozen waters to defend Elsa from Hans' murder attempt, and she succeeded at the cost of her life.

Another topic was that it made sense for Hans to snuff out any heat sources to decrease Anna's chances of survival. She couldn't imagine what kind of suffering and torment Anna went through with no heat and no one to help her. It must have been terrible and perhaps painful. The very thought of being unable to reach Anna while locked up and Anna being trapped alone in the library, weak and frail from the cold, scared Elsa inside.

Unbeknownst to her and the dignitaries, Hans really did do that prior to Anna and someone did help her after he abandoned her. What Olaf failed to tell Elsa back in her room was that he found Anna inside the library, locked because of Hans, and that he was the one who reignited the doused fireplace to retard her freezing curse a while longer, putting his own life at risk from the heat inside, until another solution to foil Hans and save the sisters and kingdom was discovered.

Only three of those tasks were accomplished.

Despite what the Spanish dignitary said about Hans possibly silencing the library's fireplace to end Anna faster, Elsa refused to give up and she sent a guard back to the castle to inspect the library just to be sure. Even if a flame came from a single, small candle, Elsa was willing to accept anything like that just to provide warmth to the cold citizens.

The guard made a quick bow to Elsa before running to the castle.

Later, that same guard, who was now being accompanied by a butler, returned to the village square. Both were holding two fully lit torches. It turned out that Elsa's hunch was correct. There really was a source of heat still in the castle that survived the cold.

"Your Majesty, we are pleased to announce that there was indeed a fire inside the library's fireplace." said the guard.

"Excellent work." Elsa praised the two.

"The fireplace was already alight when we entered and we lit these torches you see in our hands with it. We also lit up many other torches, candles, lamps and other fireplaces in the castle before heading back here. The castle should be warm in given time." said the butler.

"Now that we have heat, light the pit, please." Elsa said.

"At once, Your Majesty." the guard and servant replied together and they lowered their torches into the pit and the flames engulfed the pit and pretty soon, it was ablaze.

The villagers gathered around the flaming pit and held out their hands to feel the long-awaited heat.

Elsa was happy that her people finally had something to help keep them warm and last the supernatural winter a little while longer. If she were not immune to the cold, she would have joined them. While the cold never bothered her, she can still fell heat like everyone else.

Feeling that her guards could use a break from the hard work they've done in creating the fire pit, Elsa permitted them to join the crowd whenever they wished. They thanked her and gathered around the now-blazing pit.

The dignitaries joined them too, which Elsa didn't mind either since the pit was meant to be for all to share.

Now it was just her and Kristoff who was standing next to her and watching.

"You are free to join them if you want." Elsa said to him.

"No thank you, Your Majesty. I'm fine the way I am." Kristoff lightly rejected.

Kristoff observed the pit alongside Elsa. It reminded him of something from his journey with Anna and Olaf and he felt he should tell Elsa just to cheer her up.

"You know, I bet Olaf, would love to take part in this right now." he told her with a little smile.

Elsa looked at him in confusion.

"Why would you believe Olaf would want to be anywhere near that fire? He's made of snow and everybody knows what happens to snow when it's exposed to heat." she said and Kristoff, remembering what Olaf said to him, Sven and Anna upon their first encounter, gave his explanation.

"Because when Anna and I first met him during our ravenous adventure in the forest, he kept going on about his wish to experience summer. He was completely ignorant of what summer heat would do to him and he asked us what heat was and what it was like. Anna was hesitant to tell him the truth, believing it would break his heart and crush his soul like a grape if she did. I, on the other hand, was willing to tell Olaf that his dream was not for him, but Anna strictly told me to withhold the truth and let him have his little fantasy. Not wishing to get on whatever bad side your sister may have had, I agreed to keep silent about it."

Elsa smiled mildly from the story. She figured that Anna would have flipped out if he really did tell Olaf the truth about him and summer and if so, she would probably say, "Kristoff, you insensitive jerk! You shattered poor Olaf's hopes and dreams!", either in a playful manner or in an actual, angry manner. Not knowing Anna's modern personality due to years of isolation, Elsa didn't really know what Anna's reaction would have been like, but one of them would have come true.

"Even with Anna . . . gone . . . I'm still willing to never break my promise to her about not telling the snowman out of respect for her." Kristoff said.

Elsa's face went back to being neutral, not sad nor happy. This time, no emotional snowflakes appeared. She was teaching herself to control her feelings by thinking happy thoughts like she did before. Her snowflakes were the least of her worries, raging winds were. It happened on the fjord when she tried to navigate her way out of Arendelle through her own snowstorm after escaping from the prison.

Thinking that the mere mention of Anna's name may have upset her, Kristoff continued with another light topic.

"He's a goofball, isn't he?" he asked.

"Who is?" Elsa asked.

"Olaf, of course. He's always saying he likes warm hugs to anyone he meets for the first time, he has an obsession with the summer season, he finds the act of impalement amusing when it's done on him which really happened in the mountains with no injury of any kind, and the little, hilarious spat he and Sven had over his carrot nose out in the middle of a frozen lake in the woods."

"Yes, my Olaf sure is a silly one. Plus, he already told me of the impalement part and that it didn't hurt him." Elsa said and chuckled weakly.

The idea of her beloved snowman loving the one season that was hazardous to him was kinda funny to her. If Olaf were made of fire instead of snow and the winter curse was a summer or rainy curse, it still would have sounded odd and comical.

Elsa's mood headed south from knowing that Olaf's wish would never become reality as long as the eternal winter was around. Despite the public bonfire and the people's trust in her to care for them, she didn't like the idea of her winter staying in Arendelle forever. She hoped she could learn how to get rid of it as soon as possible as she couldn't stand to see everyone struggling to survive the freezing cold even if they didn't care for it, but like healing from her loss of Anna and her parents years prior, it was going to take some time to achieve.

"By the way, there are a couple of things I would like to know." Elsa said to Kristoff.

"And what would they be, Your Majesty?" Kristoff asked.

"Your name, as I never got it when we first met at the ice castle, who this Sven person is that you mentioned a while ago, how you and my sister met and what thawing a frozen heart with true love means. Olaf told me that last part when he spoke to me in my room. He said that you, him and Anna went to visit rock trolls to learn about her condition after I accidentally hurt her." Elsa answered.

Realizing that he and Elsa were not properly introduced before, he cleared his throat and spoke.

"Well Your Majesty, I am Kristoff Bjorgman. I am, or was, an ice harvester. Sven is the name of my reindeer, my longtime friend since childhood. Anna and I met at a small store in the middle of the forest called 'Wandering Oaks' Trading Post And Sauna'. I was trying to purchase some carrots for Sven and other things while Anna, who was blocking my way to the carrots at first, looked as if she was dressed up as if she came from, or was going to, some party. The store's owner increased the price for the supplies I was going for. I couldn't afford them with my budget and so I called him a crook and he literally threw me out of his store. Anna bought not only the things I needed for me, but winter clothing for herself and she asked me to help her find you and I accepted. At first, I was dismayed from travelling with her, but she and I later became fast friends as she and I battled some hungry, vicious wolves at the cost of my sled when it fell off a cliff. As for the true love part, after you expelled us out of your mountain home, I took her to the Valley Of The Living Rock to visit the rock trolls, who also happen to be my adoptive family which Sven and I lived with since we were younger, to see what they could do for Anna. But when they first saw her, they were quick to assume that she and I were lovers and they tried to perform a wedding ceremony for us, which I admit was embarrassing for both of us, until Grand Pabbie, my adoptive grandfather and the leader of the trolls, arrived and called it off before things got out of hand. Anna told Grand Pabbie of what happened between you and her and he said that he couldn't do anything to undo her frozen heart condition and that an act of true love can. She assumed that he meant a kiss from someone who loved her and we quickly rushed her back here to see that Hans guy she said she was engaged to because she believed he could save her life. Unfortunately, that didn't work and we now know why back there on the fjord. That royal backstabber refused to help her and then went after you to murder you and steal your kingdom from you and Anna."

Kristoff finished there.

After hearing Hans' name once again, Elsa remembered what the French dignitary said about asking Hans what he did and said to Anna in the library before she died and was considering going into the dungeon to interrogate the murderous prince.

"Now that I've answered your questions, Your Majesty, may I ask about what happened between you and Anna before our paths crossed? She told me that her engagement to Prince Hans was the reason you ran away and caused all this, not that I'm saying you did it on purpose, but was she right about the first part?" Kristoff asked. "If it's too disturbing to say, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"No it's okay, Mr. Bjorgman. I'm willing to tell you since you told me what I wanted to hear. It's only fair." Elsa replied.

"Okay, and call me 'Kristoff', Your Majesty." he said.

"Only if you call me 'Elsa' instead of 'Your Majesty'." she countered jokingly. "Since you helped Anna find me, helped her survive out there and brought her back home, you, and only you, have earned the right to call me by my name."

"As you insist, Elsa." Kristoff said.

Elsa took in a deep breath and exhaled, doing her best to remain calm during her speech.

"Yes, Anna was right about her engagement to Prince Hans and it being the cause of the magical winter. You see, during my coronation ceremony when I was declared Arendelle's new queen, she presented Prince Hans to me and asked for my blessing in marriage. Stunned beyond belief that she was willing to marry a man that she had just met on that day, I refused her request. Angered by my decision, she and I got into a spat and she said she couldn't live like this anymore and, I don't know why I said this and it hurt me just as much as it did Anna, I told her she was free to leave. I turned to walk away and she grabbed my hand, removing one of my gloves when she did, to keep me from going anywhere. In anger and panic, I demanded her to give my glove back to me, but she kept asking me questions such as why I kept shutting her and people out and what she ever did to receive such treatment. I told her enough, but she kept pushing me with her questions and demands of answers endlessly. Reaching my breaking point, I yelled at her to stop with a wave of my bare hand and that is when my magic was exposed in front of Anna and my guests and workers in the form of ice spikes. Horrified by everyone's reactions to me, I ran out of the throne room where the party took place and those outside were trying to greet me and congratulate me on becoming the new queen. Unable to navigate myself or think properly, I unconsciously took a step back and touched one of the water fountains in the courtyard, freezing its running water into an ugly shape, which terrified all who saw. The Weselton duke demanded that someone stop me. I told him and everybody else to stay away from me and as I held my hand out to exercise my gesture to be left alone, my gloveless hand shot another beam of ice magic at the duke, something I had not intended to do. He and his two bodyguards, the ones whom he would later send to kill me, slipped and fell and the duke was the first to call me a monster twice. I ran away from the courtyard and the people backed away in fear as I did. I heard Anna calling out to me, pleading me to come back, but I ignored her. I made it to the fjord, back when it was water, and I stepped into it with the intention of swimming away if that's what it took to escape my own home. When my feet touched the water, it froze under me, something even I didn't know I could do since, until the coronation, I never set foot outside my castle in thirteen years and never got the opportunity to practice with my powers. Well, maybe when I was inside my bedroom, but most of the time, I was too afraid to try and I fought to keep my magic from coming out. As I was saying, desperate to leave Arendelle, I started to run out into the water and it froze with every step I took until I was safely on the other side of the fjord and into the wilderness which I ran into until I was gone. It was during my exodus that my winter curse was cast all over Arendelle and I didn't know this because I never looked back as I kept running until Anna later informed me of the problem at my ice castle. When she told me what happened here after I fled, the strain from what I'd done to my own kingdom got to me and that is what set off my powers and infected Anna. that's where you, Kristoff Bjorgman, came in and saw me. At that moment, I admit I was cautious of seeing you because I assumed you were going to be angry at me for hurting my sister and then attack me. When I created my snow guardian to drive you, Anna and Olaf away, I regretted that when it came to my mind and I hoped that my creation would not kill any of you."

When Elsa had finished telling her story to Kristoff, she felt her emotions starting to rise in her mind and her snowflakes had returned, surrounding her.

She closed her eyes and tried to think positive thoughts again to stop her magic from acting out. If she was disturbed even further, another blizzard like the one in the fjord could return and the fire pit could go out and leave the people in the cold once more.

The dignitaries and guards noticed and wondered if they should help comfort the queen again.

"What? No, I wasn't angry at you for affecting Anna and I never planned on attacking you back there. I was just worried for Anna when I saw her groaning in pain. To be honest though, I thought you were going to strike us based on how you were looking at us and the way you were standing. I was being protective of her." Kristoff said.

Elsa struggled to get her powers under control after Kristoff said that and was touched that he really did care for Anna when she was alive. But she also felt ashamed for believing the mountain man was hostile then and making him feel she was hostile back.

"Your Majesty. Are you alright? What happened?" Kai asked Elsa.

Some of the guards assumed Kristoff had said something to upset Elsa.

Her snowflakes vanished again after regaining her calmness.

"Yes, I'm fine."

"Did this young man here say anything to bother you?"

"No, no. He and I were just exchanging stories on what went on between him, Anna and I in the last couple of days and, despite my feelings over it, he deserved to know about us and such. You can return to warming yourselves if you wish." Elsa said.

While a third of the kingdom was occupied in the village, everyone remained unaware that Hans Westergard and the duke's bodyguards, all disguised as palace guards, were watching them. They were standing guard at the castle's entrance gate bridge high above to get a better view of the village where they laid their eyes on their one and only target standing with the crowd.

Each man was armed with a spear and sword, as all patrolmen were assigned with.

"It seems the witch has built and started a bonfire to bring warmth to the people." said one of the Weselton guards in a hushed tone despite the fact that they were the only ones up there.

"Any ideas on how to lure her away from the public and to the dungeon?" said the other.

Hans thought of something, though he had no intention of using it.

"It's just like we agreed to before. We approach the queen, trick her into going into the dungeon to have a word with us about our actions against her and to discuss a proper penalty for us and other things of that sort with us as her escorts and when we have her into our trap, we strike her down then and there and once we kill her, we'll have to sneak out of Arendelle as soon as possible because everybody will learn about her death eventually and we will be hunted by the entire kingdom and we sure don't want to be around when that happens." said Hans.

"Excellent plan, Prince Hans. When we escape after killing the queen, we'll need to travel into the forest though due to every ship being frozen in the fjord because of her." said the henchmen.

"Yes, I can see that." Hans said sarcastically. He knew that. The Southern Isles ship he used to sail to Arendelle was among the ships trapped under ice, not that he had any need to use it anyway after Elsa's death. If the duke and his men wanted to run away to avoid capture or death, he wouldn't stop them as they were none of his concern. Once the abomination in the blue dress was slain, he would then turn his sword on himself.

The instant he was close to Elsa, she was as good as dead.

They climbed down from the watchtower by ladder and when they touched the ground, they were about to begin walking to the bonfire gathering up ahead when they were stopped by Gerda, one of Elsa's servants.

"Wow. That sure was nice of Queen Elsa to built a big fire for everyone. Now they can feel warm and toasty all day." she said and clasped her hands together in glee.

"Indeed." Hans falsely agreed. Thanks to their disguises and facial scarves, Gerda had no idea she was speaking with Elsa's assailants/prisoners.

"We also have lit fireplaces in the castle for those who are tending to things inside and can't attend the fire in the village. Would you three gentlemen care to take a break inside?" Gerda asked.

"No, thank you. We were just about to accompany the queen to see if she requests anything." said one of the disguised Weselton guards.

"Very well. I am craving for some hot chocolate right about now. Maybe with marshmallows. Princess Anna would have said yes on the spot. She loved chocolate." Gerda said and walked back into the castle.

"You do that." Hans said and when the maid was out of range and earshot, the evil prince rolled his eyes. To him, that woman was just as chatty and obnoxious as Princess Anna and he wondered if the dead princess got her mannerisms from her. No matter.

When it was just them again, Hans looked at his two accomplices and said, "Now is our chance. Move out." The trio marched toward the village.

As they moved, Hans smiled beneath his scarf and quietly patted his stolen sword with his right hand, satisfied that he was about to have his revenge in a matter of minutes.

_Elsa probably wishes to see Anna again. If that is the case, then I shall be happy to grant her wish and they will soon be reunited . . . in death._ He thought.

Nothing was going to come between the disgraced, wicked prince and the snow queen. Victory was going to be his and he would die with satisfaction of Elsa's demise.

Just then, they noticed another guard running to Elsa from a different direction with a look of shock on his pale face.

The three stopped suddenly. Did that man discover what happened back in the dungeon and is on his way to report the incident to Elsa? Is he on to them? The only way to find out for sure was to hurry over and listen to what news the guard had to say and see where it would lead.

"Your Majesty!" the unnamed guard yelled out.

Elsa and everybody turned and saw the guard approaching fast.

"What is it? What's wrong?" Elsa asked with worry.

"It's Princess Anna!" the guard said.

"What about her?" Elsa asked in confusion.

"It appears that she's . . . she's thawing!" he spat out.

Elsa gasped and so did everyone listening.

"What? Anna's melting away? Oh no!" Elsa said and started panicking and clutched at her chest and breathed heavily. Just as her snowflakes were about to return, the guard spoke again.

"No no! You misunderstand, my queen! The ice around her, starting with her chest area, is dissolving, but she's still standing in her defense position and her appearance before she was frozen solid remains intact." the guard corrected, wishing he choose his choice of words better at first so Elsa wouldn't freak out.

Elsa's face began to light up and her hopes began to rise.

"You're saying that my sister . . . is . . . is . . . alive somehow!?" she asked.

"I'm not completely sure, Your Majesty. I just witnessed her frozen form going through a change and I'm not exactly familiar with the type of magic you possess at all. Nobody around here is since you're the first one. Anyway, I suggest you come see for yourself since you seem to know about your magic more than us." said the guard.

Elsa agreed and began to rush out to the frozen fjord to get to Anna with everybody following her, wanting to see the princess too.

Excitement and images of Anna filled her mind. If what the guard said was true about Anna thawing and perhaps being brought back from the dead, though that was her assumption, then she was now glad she didn't hold a funeral for her just yet.

From where they stood, Hans and the duke's men were flabbergasted by the unexpected news and with everyone making their way out onto the frozen fjord, they decided to follow the crowd to see if it was true.

But either way, they were still determined to proceed with their plan of assassinating Elsa.

_How can that foolish, redhead princess be brought back from the dead? Elsa froze her heart and Anna wasted the final moments of her pathetic life protecting her supernatural sister from me and foiling my plan to rule Arendelle in their places! No matter. I could now kill both Elsa _and_ Anna simultaneously. Two royals dead by my hand in one day. A great opportunity for me that must not go undone._ Hans thought as he ran toward where the people and queen went.

If Anna turned out to be living once again, he could fulfill his revenge on both sisters. In an uncaring, sinister way, he hoped Anna would actually thaw and be flesh and bone once again in order to kill her because from what he remembered earlier, when Anna turned completely into ice in front of him and his sword struck her frozen hand, the weapon shattered on contact like a stick, but left Anna's frozen form unharmed in any way. He hadn't actually expected to see Anna again or strike her with his sword because he left her to die in the library. How she escaped was a mystery to him. Hans figured that Elsa's ice was indestructible, which is why Anna didn't shatter like a regular ice statue when he hit her.

* * *

**There ya go, another chapter written and posted. What did you think? It seems that Anna may indeed thaw and come back to life after all! But stupid Hans wants to spoil the moment by going after both sisters now! Will he succeed or will he fail? Will Elsa get to reunite with her sister and learn the secret of getting rid of her eternal winter spell? Or will her hopes be shattered like Hans' sword from hitting Anna and she'll have to move on without her? I've only got a couple of more chapter ideas left for this story. Will it end happily or will it end sadly? You'll have to wait to find out. **


	8. Chapter 8

**The good stuff's a-comin! Will Hans actually kill Elsa and Anna in front of everybody just like he planned on doing? Will Elsa survive again or will she die this time? What will become of Anna now that she is thawing?**

**Don't just sit there at your computers staring at me like I'm some kind of wierdo! READ!**

* * *

The frozen fjord had filled with the presence of Elsa, Kristoff, Kai, the castle guards and many villagers.

The fjord's icy surface was slippery and interfered with fast movement from everybody and they had to walk carefully. Even Kristoff had trouble keeping his balance and he worked with ice for years. Sven, being a four-legged animal, had the most difficulty in moving on the frozen water for a very obvious reason.

The only one who moved without any trouble was Elsa with her being the queen of ice and snow and being the one who froze the water in the first place.

On the middle of the fjord stood the frozen statue of Anna, still in the same defensive position she made from defying Hans' assassination attempt on Elsa and saving her.

Elsa approached her frozen sibling and, to her and everyone else's shock, saw that her guard was right about Anna. Her form was changing. She was thawing, but she was not melting away as Elsa had assumed at first when the guard told her about it.

The ice in the center of Anna's body was thawed in the shape of a heart. Why this happened, Elsa didn't know and cared only for the ice around Anna to completely disappear.

The thawing process was long, but Elsa didn't care as long as Anna would be alive again.

Whispers lingered in the crowd of spectators, but they were nothing bad. Like Elsa and Kristoff, they were hoping that Anna would return to normal and be back home where she belonged with Elsa.

Elsa wanted to express her excitement about seeing Anna again, but she kept it in check because she wasn't exactly certain that this unexpected miracle meant that Anna would truly be alive again and back to her old self. Another possible explanation for her thawing process was that it could be a symptom of some kind from being frozen to death and Anna could still be dead afterwards, so expressing joy would have to wait until later.

While this was the second time Anna was effected by Elsa's ice magic, this was the first time that she actually died from it, making her the very first person to die by magical ice, and Elsa had never taken a life with her powers before.

She almost did with the duke's men. A_lmost_ though.

Kristoff stood next to Elsa, sharing the same mental expression she had of keeping all joy at bay until they know the results.

"What does this mean, Your Majesty? Will Princess Anna be returned to us alive and well?" Kai asked as he approached Elsa.

"I . . . I don't know. I've never actually frozen and killed anyone before, so there's no way of knowing what the outcome here will be." Elsa admitted.

With everybody standing, watching and waiting for the teenage princess to thaw, without Elsa's knowledge or permission, two of the dignitaries, the French and Spanish ones, raced back to the castle to spread the news to the people there as they were not aware of what was happening on the fjord.

* * *

From behind the crowd, Hans and his Weselton henchmen stood by unnoticed and disguised, watching the event.

Rather than actually standing behind the crowd, they took to standing far on the side to get a better view.

They saw the dignitaries moving back to land and they had no concern of them. Their only target was Elsa and, to Hans only, Anna. The duke's men had no interest in killing Anna if she is resurrected, only Elsa was their main priority.

Hans took out a telescope from his uniform pocket to see clearly. Seeing his former fiance undergoing a dramatic change left him slightly wide-eyed. That guard was telling the truth all along.

"My god! Anna really _is_ thawing!" he said quietly under his scarf as he lowered his telescope.

The duke's men grabbed their own telescopes and saw it with their own eyes and became distraught.

They each also saw Elsa standing in front of the crowd, observing Anna's thawing at work.

"What do we do, Prince Hans?" one of them asked.

"Let us wait and see where this goes before we act. As much as we wish to put our plan of disposing the magic queen into action right this instant, I want to see what becomes of Anna first. You know what they say: good things always happen to those who wait." Hans said.

The duke's men agreed and continued standing and watching.

_Come on, you stupid, chocolate-loving wench. Thaw faster so that I may spill the blood of you and Elsa together._ The evil prince thought.

* * *

Olaf wandered around Elsa's room back at the castle, hoping to find something to help pass the time until his creator needed him.

He was still sad by Anna's tragic passing, but he wanted to find something that would take his mind off it. He guessed that after a hard day's work doing queen stuff, Elsa would eventually return to get some shut eye and there, the snowman would do his best to comfort her in case she was still saddened by today's events.

He was staying in the queen's resting chambers because most of the castle was being warmed up by so many lit torches and candles now. He enjoyed heat, but he remembered that it burned his stick arm and almost melted him into a puddle when he found and aided Anna in the library.

_Some people are worth melting for._

That was one of the words she used to comfort Anna in her final minutes of life after she told him to get away from the fireplace of which he lit himself and refused her plea.

Suddenly, he heard rushing footsteps and saw a servant run past Elsa's open room.

Then another servant ran by.

And another.

And another.

None of them noticed the living snowman inside.

"I wonder what's going on." he said to himself and got the feeling that it was something urgent. He hoped Elsa wasn't in trouble.

He approached the exit and then Gerda appeared.

"Hey, why is everyone in such a hurry? Is there something wrong with Elsa?" Olaf asked Gerda.

The maid stopped and saw Olaf standing there.

"It's Princess Anna! We've been informed that she's being thawed from her freezing condition and she might be restored to life!" she said and moved along.

Olaf couldn't believe it. Princess Anna was going to come back? How was that possible? Either way, Olaf had to see this for himself.

He waddled over to the room's windows and looked down at the courtyard and saw many servants running out of the castle and toward the frozen fjord to see the event, making Olaf the only one left inside the castle. He had it all to himself, but he had no intention of staying inside because he wanted to see Anna again.

He ran out the door, skidded around a few corners and found the stairs. Rather than walk all the way down, Olaf decided to jump over the railing instead. He fell a long drop and crash landed on the marble floor below. Lucky for him, his snow form made him impervious to whatever serious injuries he might have sustained were he a flesh and blood human instead of a being made from snow, sticks, lumps of coal and a carrot nose.

Unfortunately, he lost his stick arms when he landed and after reattaching them back on his body, Olaf made for the exit and was once again outside.

While the castle workers and guards were already used to seeing him, the villagers wouldn't because he remembered how one person shrieked from seeing him when he helped Kristoff and Sven in bringing Anna back to the palace when she was dying. He darted ahead of them in a different direction while sliding like a penguin and he spotted someone, said hello and that person screamed and ran.

* * *

Back outside, everybody watched with anticipation as Anna kept thawing.

The process was halfway done.

Elsa stepped forward to her defrosting sister.

"A-Anna? Can you hear me?" Elsa asked nervously.

Anna did not respond.

"Perhaps Anna needs to be fully thawed first before she can speak, Elsa. She's still frozen, remember?" Kristoff suggested.

"Yes, you're right. How silly of me. I can wait." Elsa said.

From their spots, the three disguised criminals laid in wait, wondering how long it was going to take for the frozen princess to thaw out.

"Almost done." Hans whispered after seeing the ice around Anna nearly finished with melting away.

After a few more, agonizing minutes of waiting, the ice on Anna's body vanished and she was restored to her original appearance.

"Anna!" Elsa cried out in joy. She was hoping that Anna would look at Elsa and hug her out of happiness at being alive again.

But instead, the princess simply toppled over.

"Anna!" Elsa yelped as she and Kristoff suddenly swooped in and grabbed her before she could touch the frozen water. Something was wrong with her.

"Anna? Anna, are you alright?" Elsa pleaded and Anna still remained unresponsive.

"Anna, it's me, Elsa!"

Still nothing.

"Why isn't she answering me?" Elsa asked worriedly.

"She just thawed from being frozen into a statue, Elsa. Her unconsciousness is perhaps a side effect from that. We just need to wait until she's able to wake up on her own." Kristoff suggested. He may not be an ice magician like Elsa, but he was just trying to help Elsa out.

Elsa placed her ear close to Anna's chest and heard a heartbeat. She was alive again, but she was just unconscious. she knew Kristoff was right. Anna just needed time until the effect wore off.

"I see your point. We should get her warmed up." Elsa said.

"Well, we did just build and light up a large fire pit in the middle of the village, Your Majesty. Why don't we take her there?" Kai suggested.

"Okay, then." Elsa agreed and she, Kristoff and Kai carried Anna and began to walk back to shore with the people and guards letting them pass them and followed.

* * *

The disguised fugitives couldn't believe what just happened. Anna had completely thawed and was back to her old self again. But they wondered where they were taking her since they didn't exactly hear the conversation about taking the defrosted princess to the village pit.

"Let's follow them, men." Hans ordered and the three walked with the crowd, their disguises blending them with the other guards and keeping suspicion off them by anyone, the queen included.

Hans was trying to reach Elsa faster so that he can slay Elsa and the now-defrosted Anna and complete his personal vendetta while the duke's men some people thought he was trying to either disperse the crowd or help Elsa.

* * *

The crowd had made it back to the village and Kristoff, Elsa and Kai carefully lowered Anna close to the blazing firepit, but not too close for hazardous reasons, and all they could do for now was step back, watch and wait and hope that Anna would wake up.

_Please don't die, Anna. So that I can tell you how sorry I am for shutting you out for the past thirteen years and for freezing you._ Elsa thought.

Noticing the sad, worried look on the young queen's face, Kristoff placed a hand on her shoulder for comfort, almost causing Elsa to flinch until she instantly realized who it was that touched her and calmed down. Normally, she disliked it out of fear, but after the events that happened today and for Kristoff's care for her and Anna, she allowed it.

"Anna will make it, Elsa. I know it." he told her.

Elsa looked at him.

"I hope so." she said. "I just really want her back and if that happens, I don't ever want to shut her out ever again from now on."

* * *

When Hans and his accomplices finally got within range of the center of the crowd, Hans darted his eyes everywhere to ensure that everyone would be able to get a good, hard look at what he was about to do. He wanted all to see their precious, magical queen and their talky princess die and for the witnesses to spread the word about his deed throughout the land and beyond. He wasn't sure if killing Elsa would really cease the eternal winter curse and he didn't care.

He would be known for centuries as the man who murdered Queen Elsa and Princess Anna of Arendelle.

Then after the double murder has been committed, he was certain that the reputation of his family would be tarnished and people would hate and persecute them for a long time because of his link to them. This would be his way of getting back at his family for all the mistreatment he was given by them all throughout his life. If he was to suffer, then so would they.

_Time to die, Queen Elsa and Princess Anna. To hell with both of you and Arendelle!_ Hans thought as he began to reach for his sword. But then, thinking it over, he decided to go with his uniform's borrowed dagger instead since the sword was too big and heavy to wield. The dagger's small size would allow him to strike his targets quicker than his sword would.

The Weselton men were surprised and confused at what the prince was doing because this was not part of the plan. It was not yet time to kill Elsa. She was supposed to perish inside the dungeons, not in front of a wide audience where all can see.

_What is he _doing_?!_ They thought. It was then that they realized that Hans had duped them and the duke once more for his own desires. They were certain that the duke would grow angry at their second failure and that Hans' actions will most definitely without a shadow of a doubt, earn them all an even harsher punishment than previously.

* * *

**Anna is thawed and alive again, WHOOHOO! Sure, she's KO'd after being turned into a dead, living statue, but at least she'll live again . . . or will she?**

**The joyful reunion between Elsa and Anna is going to have to wait because Hans is just seconds away from repeating his actions from earlier and Elsa, or someone else, needs to think fast before it's too late! **

**Now that Anna is defrosted and alive again, will she also die by Hans' hand or will she wake up in time to witness her former fiance's killing attempt and help stop him again? The answer will be revealed in the next chapter, so . . . **

**KEEP READING!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Here comes the final confrontation. What will happen next? Will Hans kill Elsa and Anna or will the horse's ass lose and face further and harsher punishment for what he's about to do? Will Anna wake up from her slumber in time?**

**Here's what I cooked up.**

* * *

With Elsa distracted by the well-being of Anna, Hans clutched his dagger in his right hand and prepared to thrust it into Elsa first and then Anna and finally himself.

Kristoff noticed this from the corner of his eye and turned his head to see the masked guard doing something very unexpected.

_Why is that one about to . . .?_ He thought and then it dawned on him on what was about to happen. The queen was in danger again!

"ELSA!" Kristoff yelled out.

Elsa turned around and before she could react to the imminent danger, Hans' plunged his weapon directly at Elsa!

But no harm was brought to Elsa when an ice barrier suddenly formed between her and Hans and blocked Hans' killing blow. This happened before when the duke's men invaded Elsa's ice castle and one of them shot an arrow at her head, but an ice wall prevented the arrow from penetrating her. It was a defense mechanism that was sometimes triggered outside Elsa's command when she was attacked like that.

Kristoff leaped in and quickly shoved Hans away and the two enemies struggled for dominance while the people watched in fear, shock and confusion at the sudden event and the guards were shaken as to why one of their own would make an attempt on Elsa's life so suddenly and moved to Elsa to keep her and Anna protected.

"Your Majesty! Are you hurt?" one of the guards asked when Elsa's ice wall vanished.

Elsa didn't answer. She just looked on the fight between Anna's former lover and her current friend and didn't notice her snowflakes making another appearance all over her.

Kristoff punched Hans in the stomach which, due to the physical strength he built from the years of ice labor and sometimes wilderness survival, impacted Hans hard enough to almost make him vomit up the meal he ate before escaping the dungeon.

Kristoff then punched Hans in the face. His attack knocked Hans' hat off his head and tore off his scarf, revealing his face to all who watched the brawl.

"You again?!" Kristoff questioned with dismay.

Hans kicked Kristoff away and rushed toward Elsa to try killing her again.

The French dignitary tried to stop him, but Hans stabbed him in the arm, making him scream in agony and pain.

Elsa's guards attempted to stop Hans and, realizing that he was outnumbered, the prince suddenly saw a small girl closeby and made a grab for her and aimed his dagger at her throat.

It was the same girl who gave Elsa the flower as a peace offering and showed admiration and support to the snow queen despite what her magic had done to the land and Anna. Now she was in danger by the mad prince.

"Stand down, all of you!" Hans said to the guards who stopped in their tracks.

Everybody, Elsa especially, watched with horror in their eyes at what the kingdom's former regent was doing. He was threatening an innocent child.

The girl's family screamed for her and begged Hans to release her to no avail as he stood his ground.

Lay down your arms and step backwards or this one gets it!" Hans demanded.

Hans pressed his blade against the girl's neck to express his seriousness, causing her to whimper in dread.

"I will spill her blood if you refuse to do as I say! NOW!" he yelled.

Having no choice, the guards did as they were told and took several steps back.

Hans smiled evilly.

"Now," he announced to everyone present. "I'm aware that I will not be leaving Arendelle at all for reasons other than this unnatural weather your sorceress queen has caused!"

_You got that right, you conniving, twisted monster!_ Kristoff thought and pictured in his mind all the painful things he wanted to do to Hans if the opportunity ever presented itself.

Hans then started to tell everyone his story of why he came to Arendelle along with what his life was like that made him hungry for power.

"For the past few days since the start of this winter apocalypse, I was in charge of Arendelle when Anna left on her worthless journey to fetch the person responsible for bringing a winter doom unto all of you and eventually, I became your new ruler when Elsa was imprisoned and it was exquisite. All I ever wanted in life was power and respect, both of which I could never achieve back in my own homeland because of me being the youngest of thirteen brothers and that made me the very last in line for my kingdom's throne and, assuming nothing and nobody ended my life too soon, I would have been a feeble, old man by the time I was able to be crowned king of the Southern Isles. For years, I have faced torment and misery by my own family due to my mentioned statuses and that hardened me into the man you now know me as. Because I had no chance of being king of my home, I decided to travel to different kingdoms in hopes of marrying my way to power elsewhere. When I arrived in Arendelle to attend Elsa's coronation party when she was to be crowned the new queen, I intended to weasel my way to the top by marrying her, becoming your king and then later dispose of her by staging a little accident for her and probably Anna too so that I can finally possess the things I never had. But because of Elsa's magic being revealed, which I admit left me just as stumped as all of you at first as I never expected that, and the events that came to pass afterward, I had to constantly change my plans much to my inner frustration. Then my luck changed when Anna was dying and Elsa was imprisoned and I could have succeeded in ending them both and reaping the rewards all to myself were it not for the magical abomination and her annoying, chocolate-loving, lovestruck chatty sister! Before this day is over, I will have my revenge for all that I've worked so hard to obtain and lost!"

Elsa stood up next to Anna.

"How ever did you escape from your prison cell?" she asked him.

"I have my ways and they led me out here. Now I am free to accomplish my goal!"

"That is never going to happen, Hans! You lost everything here: my people's trust in you, the friendship you and Anna had and eventually, whatever ounce of respect you may have had before you came to my kingdom! Come to think of it, I'm now glad that I denied you and Anna the right to marry at my party! You lost your place here and perhaps your home when word of your deeds reaches there!" Elsa stated.

"You're right, Elsa. I lost my place both here and eventually my homeland. But I have no intention whatsoever of returning to the Southern Isles or starting a new life in your castle dungeon as a prisoner. My goal is no longer your position as ruler if that's what you're thinking. I've outgrown that now. I desire something else, something that favors me more than Arendelle's throne." Hans said.

"And that would be . . .?" Elsa asked.

"The deaths of you and Anna!"

Everyone gasped in shock.

"Since I cannot take Arendelle as my own anymore, then neither can you or your dimwitted sister!"

Kristoff and Elsa clenched their teeth in anger from that statement. How dare Hans insult Anna like that!

"Arendelle is, was, and always will be, mine and Anna's to rule since the day we were born no matter what! Whatever negative treatment you endured at the hands of your family back in your homeland, I am sorry that happened to you, I really am, but your harsh upbringing does not, at all, excuse what you did to Anna, myself, Arendelle and what you're doing now to that child, Prince Hans! Release her and your punishment will not be execution unlike what you tried to order unto me when you assumed control over my home and my guards." Elsa said.

She was trying to negotiate with the wayward prince, but it would not work.

"I'll consider that on the condition that you kill Anna and then yourself with your magic ice and don't you even think about using it for anything besides that! Should you refuse to obey me or if you fight me off with your powers, let's just say that there will be more than one funeral service when this day ends. Speaking of death, before I had to resort to this, my original revenge plan was to kill you and Anna anyway and then myself since, as I said before, I lost everything and do not plan on going home or living out the remainder of my life locked away like how you did. I recall Anna telling me a few days ago that you hid yourself away for years since childhood. You should have stayed there where you belong. I guess that your parents, Arendelle's rulers before you, thought you were an accident. The old man from Weselton and myself may have our differences, but he and I agree on one thing: magical folks like you are unnatural and do not belong in normal society. Perhaps your parents died because they wanted to get away from you or find a way to end you so that you would not do all this, but you did." Hans said nastily.

Hans' dirty, hateful comments struck a nerve in her, Kristoff and everyone else and outrage grew. But above all, Elsa and Kristoff couldn't believe that Hans actually planned on performing a triple murder suicide the whole time and was now demanding that Elsa kill her own sister again and then take her own life in exchange of another, especially one who had so much to live for. However, how would Elsa know that Hans would not kill his hostage anyway due to his heinous personality? If Elsa and Anna died, he probably would have done it anyway.

"You're insane if you believe Queen Elsa's really going to do those things you dirty bas-!" Kristoff began to shout until Hans cut him off.

"Silence, ice man! This does not concern you, only the ice witch and her 'ordinary' sister! Both are freaks and need to die!" Hans hissed, clutching his defenseless hostage in his strong, firm grip.

The child began shedding tears and was terrified.

"Help me, Queen Elsa!" she cried out.

Elsa saw and it hurt her just as much as it hurt her family that she could not save her.

"While I may not be king anymore Elsa, I still order you to kill Anna and yourself or this poor child will never live to build a snowman." he threatened, pressing his dagger against the girl's neck again, making her flinch her face in slight pain.

Hearing those words in Hans' last sentence made Elsa flash back to the many times Anna kept asking her if she wanted to build a snowman with her and all Elsa said to her was "Go away, Anna."

"You're not really considering giving in to this madman's outlandish demands, are you Elsa?" Kristoff asked Elsa.

Elsa said nothing because she could not find the right response or plan to get out of this mess. It appeared that she was deadlocked.

As this went on, the duke's henchmen stood there watching, not knowing what to do from here. They were originally supposed to lure the queen to their trap and kill her privately, but now Hans had just ruined their plan.

On the other hand, he was trying to complete what the duke desired. As long as Elsa was eliminated, it shouldn't matter who killed her and how. A death was a death, right?

Then they thought of something. Why not just leave Hans to kill Elsa on his own and go back, free the duke from the prison and escape Arendelle while they still can despite the endless winter issue. It would have gone against what the duke demanded, but at this time and due to what Elsa was capable of when provoked as they learned the hard way in her ice castle, it was better to be gone and safe than here and sorry later on. After all, protecting the duke was what he hired them for and Hans would be doing the duke a favor even if it wasn't how the duke envisioned.

If Hans wished to stay and die for his cause, then that was his own business.

* * *

Olaf stepped outside the castle and crossed the bridge leading to the village.

He saw smoke from the fire pit and felt somewhat excited to be near heat again in spite of almost melting in the library.

He also saw the crowd of people all with their backs turned, appearing to be focusing on something other than the fire pit and Olaf wondered what was going on and decided to do some investigating. He quietly waddled over and took cover behind an unguarded cart filled with hay.

When the snowman managed to get a better look at the situation, he was utterly stunned at what he was seeing.

Prince Hans, dressed as an Arendelle palace guard, was threatening a little girl with a knife or dagger and seemed to be negotiating with Elsa.

Olaf heard Hans mention something about wanting Elsa to kill herself and Anna in exchange for the kid's life and he grew terrified out of his mind, and he had no actual brain in his head.

He wondered why Elsa wasn't cooking up something cold (literally) to stop Hans yet?

In spite of his horror of the scene, Olaf felt he had to help get his creator out of this dangerous pickle. But how?

While Hans was speaking to Elsa while unaware of Olaf's presence, the snowman tried to think of a plan to save everyone and he thought it up quick.

It would involve revealing his existence to everybody earlier than expected, but it was something he was willing to do for the sake of Elsa, Anna and the unnamed child being held by Hans.

Besides, he knew he was bound to be exposed to Arendelle's public sometime, so hiding forever was pointless just like Elsa did with her magic.

_Don't worry, Elsa! I'm here to save the day!_ Olaf thought.

He plucked out one of his coal buttons, took a moment to predict the trajectory of his upcoming throw and tossed it at Hans as hard as he could.

* * *

Elsa and Hans had a stare-off and it looked as if Elsa was about to go through with what Hans wanted with a look of regret and terror on her pale face as she raised her right hand over Anna's unconscious body.

The people and Kristoff were frightened as they watched their queen's movements. They couldn't believe what they were seeing what Elsa was going to do, but despite that, they understood that this was not entirely her fault, but Hans'. He was forcing her to kill Anna again and the guilt-ridden look on her face told them that this hurt her so much.

"Elsa, please don't do this!" Kristoff pleaded.

"I'm sorry, Kristoff. I know how much you cared for her when she was ill and I'm grateful for that." Elsa said to him, tears forming in her eyes and falling over her face.

"Oh, enough with the drama and get it over with already, sorceress!" Hans said irritatingly.

Elsa stared at Hans with her tear-filled eyes and looked down at her hands as she hovered them over Anna, glowing white and blue colors which meant she was summoning her magic. Was she really going to use her magic to kill again?

Hans smiled from seeing the upset look on Elsa's face, believing he was going to win and rid the world of Anna and Elsa, when something solid suddenly hit him in the back of his head.

Hans cried out in slight pain and unwittingly released the child from his grip who immediately ran over to her family while the prince was now open for punishment.

Out of reflex and putting her vow of fighting with her magic aside, Elsa quickly shot a blast of ice at Hans' dagger hand, disarming him when he dropped it.

Unarmed now, the guards immediately charged at Hans to seize him. He wasn't fast enough to reach for his sword when the guards tackled him to the ground and restrained him and started to check for any other weapons he was suspected of carrying on him. All they found was his sword, or rather theirs since he stole it.

The crowd cheered when this happened. Hans struggled and yelled for his release. Like that was going to happen.

Elsa breathed a heavy sigh of relief from the fact that the child was safe and she didn't have to kill Anna after all. She looked around for whoever assaulted Hans and noticed something beside where he stood previously.

It was a lump of coal.

_Who threw it?_ Elsa thought to herself. She noticed something moving behind a cart of hay. Something with white feet and a stick arm sticking out from the side and she instantly recognized it as Olaf. Her hug-loving creation had just prevented another tragedy.

The duke's men, still not yet discovered, turned around while nobody was looking and headed back into the castle to get the duke and take off, but they then slipped and fell on a patch of slippery, bare ground similar to how the duke fell a few days back and their hats and scarves were separated from their heads and faces, revealing their identities.

A young boy heard that and turned and saw them sprawled on the ground.

"Hey, look!" he yelled and pointed at them.

Like with Hans, the two were quickly surrounded and apprehended by Elsa's guards the instant they saw and recognized them as being the duke's hired hands. The duke was going to give them a scolding like no other when they returned to their cells. Or the duke was going to get scolded himself for sending them out to kill Elsa.

Elsa looked on in disbelief at how the prisoners who tried to kill her were out and plotted it. She wondered why the duke wasn't there, not that she wished to see him around. She was about to question the three when she heard a moan and saw that it came from Anna who was slowly moving her head.

"Anna? Elsa asked in concern as she held her sister's head in her hands. Kristoff joined her after hearing that.

Anna's eyes slowly opened and her vision blurred momentarily and when it repaired itself, she saw Elsa and Kristoff staring down at her.

"Elsa? Kristoff?" she asked.

"Yes, Anna! It's us!" Elsa said happily. Tears of joy poured from her eyes and she and Anna hugged each other at once and everybody cheered and applauded for the now-reunited royal sisters.

Remembering what Anna did out on the fjord earlier, Elsa asked, "You sacrificed yourself for me?"

Anna's only reply to her question was, "I love you."

It was her only reason for preventing Hans from killing her despite Elsa shutting her out for years and infecting her heart with her magic, both of which Anna knew Elsa didn't mean to do.

Anna looked at Kristoff and silently held out her hand to him. He took it and was forcefully yanked forward with the girls and was soon hugging them as well.

"It's good to have you back, Anna." Kristoff said.

"Same here, ice boy." Anna said and Kristoff smiled at the comment.

Anna looked around and saw the entire kingdom standing around, looking at them. Then she wondered why she was in the middle of the village square with a blazing fire nearby instead of being out on the fjord where she last defended Elsa.

Suddenly, Olaf appeared from out of his spot and waddled over to the three.

The people saw him and, though surprised by his appearance, nobody freaked out since they knew he was Elsa's creation and didn't look dangerous.

Olaf gasped in realization. "I get it now!" he said in joy.

Elsa, Kristoff and Anna turned to look at him when they heard him speak.

"Get what?" Elsa wondered.

"An act of true love will thaw a frozen heart! What Anna did earlier was what that rock troll meant, not a kiss from a loved one as we thought at first!" Olaf explained.

Elsa remembered what Olaf told her about Anna seeking the kiss of Hans and later Kristoff to survive her heart-freezing problem.

Anna explained her reason behind her actions to Kristoff and Elsa.

"Earlier, I was trying to reach you," She pointed to Kristoff. "because I believed a kiss from you could save me from freezing to death when Olaf made me realize that you cared for me after I told him that I didn't know what love was anymore after Hans left me for dead in the castle's library and I thought it would work. Olaf saw you coming from a mile away and helped me escape the castle and onto the fjord. But when I saw you running to me, I heard Hans unsheathe his sword while you," She pointed to Elsa. "weren't looking and saw that he was going to kill you! I had to decide right there whose life to save first: mine or Elsa's, and as much as the thought of death frightened me as I was seconds away from it, I chose Elsa over myself. I got in front of him and reached out with my hand to stop his sword from harming her and, well, everything went blank after that until I woke up here just now."

After hearing that, Elsa finally figured out Olaf's riddle and how it connected with Anna's bravery that led to her resurrection.

"Love will thaw." Elsa said.

"Elsa?" Anna asked.

"Of course! Love." Elsa repeated. It was the key to ending the winter plague.

With full confidence, Elsa stood up and slowly raised her arms in the air.

As she did this, every ounce of snow and frost began to levitate into the air.

Everybody else all watched in amazement.

Within seconds, all of the ice and snow gathered into the sky above Arendelle as one, giant snowflake.

Elsa inched her hands together, stopped for a moment, and spread her hands out quickly and when she did, so did the giant snowflake.

The eternal winter was over and the bright sunshine and blue sky were back.

Cheers erupted again, for the return of summer and for Elsa who made it possible now that she finally learned the secret to controlling her magic.

Anna stood up with some help from Kristoff in case she fainted, but didn't.

"I knew you could do it." she said to Elsa.

"Hands down, this is the best day of my life . . .and quite possibly the last." Olaf said as he suddenly started melting because of the summer heat.

"Olaf! Hang on, little guy." Elsa replied and waved her hand to summon more snow to rebuild Olaf and she even gave him a little snow cloud above his head to keep him preserved.

"My own personal flurry!" Olaf expressed happily and hopped up and down in joy.

With everything back to normal, the three, and the people, could finally rebuild their lives.

Kristoff turned his attention to Hans who was still restrained by Elsa's soldiers. Anger written on his face, he began to march over to the homicidal prince in order to give him a vicious beating for his crimes.

However, Anna quickly yelped for Kristoff to stop, preferring to handle Hans herself to which Kristoff agreed to and stood aside as she made her way over to him. Other than being Arendelle's princess, Kristoff felt Anna had as much right than him to say or do to Hans whatever she had in mind since she and Elsa were victimized by him.

While she moved, Kristoff told Anna what Hans did while she was unconscious. While not actually showing it, Anna had the definite need to deal with Hans in a manner that nobody had ever seen her do before.

"Anna? But she froze your heart!" Hans said.

Anna gave Hans a blank glare and sternly said, "The only frozen heart around here is _yours_!" and turned her back to him, much to Hans' confusion.

Then, without warning, Anna turned about-face, grabbed him by his uniform collar and delivered a swift, hard punch to Hans' face, hitting him in his eye and knocking him out of the guards' grip and onto the ground.

The people were surprised to see Anna's violent side. They expected her mountain friend to act like this had he been the one to hurt Hans, but no, it was her.

"That's for leaving me to die in the castle!" she told him in anger.

She went and stomped on his throat, making him choke and gasp for air.

"That's for trying to steal Arendelle!"

Anna then walked over to Hans' legs and spread them apart with her feet.

"And _this_,"she said with a venomous look in her eyes "is for trying to kill my sister and for the things you did here before I woke up!"

Everyone got a hint of what the princess was going to do next. Even Elsa was a little terrified, but at the same time glad that Anna was standing up for her.

Hans locked eyes with Anna and was horrified of what was coming. Of all the things he suffered at the hands of his brothers back in the Southern Isles, this was one of them and it was about to make a comeback in the form of his former fiance.

"No! Please don't!" he pleaded.

Ignoring his plea for mercy, Anna raised her foot and stomped down as hard as she can on Hans' groin, twisting her foot about to increase the pain on him and Hans shrieked and yelped in a high-pitched tone.

Kristoff and every male in town cringed at the sight of this, knowing how much that hurt, even the duke's men. Olaf wasn't cringed because he would never know what it feels like to be hit there or at all since he can't feel any pain.

When Anna was done, she told the guards to take Hans away along with the duke's men. She showed her fist at the assassins which scared them. They were glad they were not in Hans' place when Anna hurt him.

"Serves you right, you lying, murderous pig!" someone yelled and all agreed with the statement as Hans was seen cupping his bound hands over his groin injury. He had a feeling he was going to feel that for a long time.

Elsa had no idea that her own baby sister was capable of violent behavior like that and even though her actions sounded out of place for a royal princess to her, deep down, Elsa admitted Hans pretty much deserved what she did to him.

Elsa approached Anna and the two hugged again.

Kristoff stood by watching with happiness and noticed Anna was looking directly at him with a smile on her face. It meant that she was grateful for all he had done for her and Elsa and that she loved him. He felt the same way and admired the fact that he was in love with a princess that cared deeply for her sister and had the capability of bringing the hurt to anyone who dared to harm and/or kill her and Elsa and Hans was a prime example of what happens when one threatens Arendelle.

* * *

**Hans and the duke's men have once more failed to exterminate Arendelle's royals and the Southern Isles SOB finally got what he deserved: A black eye, a boot-shaped bruise on his head and a harsh stomp on his royal balls! Get it? Royal balls?**

**Let this be a very important lesson to Hans about Princess Anna and Queen Elsa: NEVER, EVER mess with them or you're not gonna like the consequences if you do!**

**Except for the face punching part which is from the movie, what she did to Hans after that was borrowed from a scene in Mortal Kombat X. I saw my brother playing the game and after I saw that part, I knew I had to add it here since it was the perfect physical punishment fit for Hans. Sorry if I spoiled anything for anyone who have yet to play that game.**

**Now that summer and Anna are back, the healing process can begin for all.**

**The part where Anna pulled Kristoff in to join the group hug was borrowed from Tangled which fans believe is connected with Frozen due to the small cameo they did in the film during the song "For The First Time In Forever". Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But, you know.**

**One more chapter or two to go and the story will conclude. **

**You think Anna should've hit Hans harder? **


	10. Chapter 10

**Now this chapter was a toughie. Aside from the reenactment of a couple of certain scenes from the movie, it also contains scenes of what I believe happened before and after Elsa removed her winter curse and what led to the film's celebration ending. **

**It's not official material, just something I thought of. I'm sure lots of writers have their own versions.**

**I hope I did it well.**

* * *

After returning into the castle, Anna was given a full-scale checkup by the royal medical staff because of her former frozen state, ordered by Elsa herself because she was concerned for Anna's well-being. The examination took place inside the castle's medical room.

"I'm alright, Elsa. Really, I am." Anna said, trying to convince Elsa that this was unnecessary.

But Elsa said nothing to cease the treatment and continued watching as the doctors thoroughly inspected the princess from head to toe in a manner similar to how one of the rock trolls, Kristoff's adopted mother, inspected Anna to see if she was perfect for Kristoff for a wedding they cooked up before the reason for their visit was explained.

"I have no sicknesses, fevers, or injuries of any kind on me. Well, my hand's lightly bruised from punching out Hans, but that's totally different and he had it coming!" Anna said.

The doctors paid no heed as they were told to keep inspecting no matter what Anna said.

Elsa burst into giggles at her sister's protests, earning her a glare from Anna in a non-angered way.

"You think this is funny, Elsa?" she asked.

"I don't _think_ it's funny, Anna. I _know_ it's funny. You're acting just like your goofy, old self again, just the way I remember and like. Besides, I want to be completely sure you're healthy since . . . well, you know."

"Since the heart-freezing and ice statue thing?" Anna asked.

Elsa hung her head down. "Yes, that." she said as her tone and face changed from happy to sad.

Anna sensed Elsa was experiencing a guilt trip and Anna mentally scolded herself for bringing the issue up.

Without looking up, Elsa said, "Anna, I'm so sor-", but was cut off by Anna.

"No no. You don't have to apologize, Elsa." Anna said, mimicking what Elsa said to her at the ice palace when she tried to apologize for the argument at the coronation and Elsa cut her off too. "I know you never meant to freeze me or Arendelle. You didn't have much control over your snow powers and those two things never would've happened if I hadn't pushed and scolded you for not letting me marry Prince Horrible. If anyone should be sorry for what went on around here, it should be me. Besides, after what he would do in the following days after, I'm now glad you rejected my attempt at marrying him."

Elsa looked up at Anna as she said this. It was exactly what she said to Hans before Anna thawed back to life.

"I hope I hurt him hard enough to remind him to never try something stupid like that again and he'd better not return because I'll be more than willing to give him another black eye to go with his current one! Perhaps that would make him go blind since, you know, you need eyes to see." Anna said, making her hands into fists and kissing them as both a little joke and a promise to sock the prince if he showed his face around Arendelle territory in the future.

Anna's hope of never Hans Westergard again was under her assumption that he would be banished from Arendelle now that the snow had melted, which Elsa had in mind of doing since he had to be returned to the Southern Isles since he was still of royal blood. She had no intentions of keeping him as a prisoner anyway.

"I hear that. What you did to him may not have been princess-like of you, but after all he's done to the two of us, you had every right to do it. I bet his family will laugh at his misfortune when he is sent back, which is what I intend to do later in the day." Elsa said, her mood perking up again.

"Hey, since you're queen and all, maybe you should make it legal for citizens to hit Hans if he ever sets foot on our homeland. You could call it the 'Hit Prince-Hans-Of-The- Southern-Isles-Law' or the 'Anti-Hans Law'." Anna suggested. She knew it would never come true, but still, a little humor now was in order.

Anna and Elsa laughed at the younger girl's joke suggestion.

The doctors finished with their checkup and gave their report to Elsa.

"Princess Anna appears to be free of any ice-related effects, Your Majesty." one doctor said.

"Told ya so!" Anna said to her sister.

Elsa had to give her that since she was right about being clean all along.

"I thank you doctor and all of you for your services. You may leave now and Anna and I will do the same to prepare for today's big event." Elsa said.

"With pleasure, Your Majesty." the doctor said. They all bowed to her and departed the medical room and so did the queen and princess.

As the girls explored the castle halls, Anna returned to being serious.

"Before that medical exam thing, Elsa, I was told that after I froze trying to save you, all of Arendelle accepted you back as queen rather than form a witch hunting mob and chase after you in spite of my death and Arendelle's problem. and you did your best to help everyone make it through. I was also informed that you put a funeral for me aside in favor of helping the people. Normally, some might find that to sound cold, no pun intended, but you did it for the sake of everyone who tried to survive your winter curse thingy and I think that was very caring of you to do, by which I mean the helping the people part."

"You really think so?" Elsa questioned.

"Oh, I know so. You put the needs of others ahead of your own and I'm glad you did it. That's why you'll be known forever as the greatest queen in Arendelle's history, perhaps the greatest queen in the whole, wide world to ever live." Anna assured.

This instantly washed away Elsa's guilt of skipping Anna's funeral service now that she was right about Anna approving her actions when she returned to power.

"That's also what Olaf meant when he told me the same thing when I was still alive and that's what thawed me when I threw myself in front of Hans when he was seconds away from killing you."

The girls shuddered at the memory and it only happened mere hours ago.

Elsa lead Anna into her bedroom and Anna finally got a glimpse of it after all the years of never being able to enter. Anna wondered how Elsa was able to maintain her sanity while being cooped up inside this place and Elsa figured her little sister deserved to look inside now.

"So this is your room." Anna said. "I've always wondered what it was like all this time."

"Yes. Do you like it?" Elsa asked.

"Like it? I love it." said Anna.

Anna noticed the flower in Elsa's hair.

"What's that, Elsa?" she asked and pointed at the rose.

Elsa knew what she meant and took the rose out and held it in front of her.

"Oh, You remember Kristoff telling you about Hans using a child as leverage to force me into killing us before you woke up after thawing?"

Anna, though shaken by that statement, nodded. It was one of the reasons she plowed Hans' groin with her foot in revenge aside from trying to kill Elsa.

"Before you thawed, I was out helping the people when that girl approached me and gave the rose to me as a peace offering and told me she loved my magic and didn't care about the trouble it caused and wished for me to remain queen. Her family and everyone nearby saw the whole exchange and she hugged me to further show that she didn't fear me at all. Most of the villagers exchanged 'aww . . .!' looks from seeing that. You know, like what you say when you see something cute like a baby or a friendly animal."

Anna was deeply touched by that. During the Great Freeze, even that little child comforted Elsa during her darkest hour and proved to everyone that Elsa was no monster prior to what that idiot duke said when Elsa revealed her abilities.

"Aww, that's so sweet! I wish I was thawed out sooner to see that. Good thing I injured Hans' big-boy spot for using her to get to you." Anna said.

Elsa nodded. "Told ya so." Elsa said, proving her point from her statement.

"There's something else I gotta know." Anna said and Elsa eyed her.

"What's that, Anna?"

"I thought you wanted to stay in the mountains for the rest of your life when I found you there. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad you're home again and back to being the queen, or should I say 'Snow Queen' because of your amazing ability to, you know, make it snow out of nothing whenever you want instead of waiting for it in the form of the real winter season and it makes perfect sense and . . ."

Anna realized she was babbling and cut to the chase. "But what made you want to come back to Arendelle after you . . . threw us out?"

Elsa swallowed. She disliked being reminded of what she did to Anna, Kristoff and Olaf back there, but it was in her and Anna's personal history now and it can never be erased. Because she no longer wanted to keep secrets and Anna felt the same way, Elsa was willing to tell Anna what brought her back, though it wasn't going to be a pretty story.

"I didn't want to return at first. I wanted to remain there in my ice castle to keep you and everybody safe from my magic. After I expelled you, Olaf and Kristoff from my temporary getaway, which is something I've regretted doing then and still do now, a group of my own palace guards and the duke's soldiers, all led by Prince Hans, arrived eventually with the objective of finding me and probably you too. My snowman guardian, the one I summoned to make you leave, fought them off while I watched from behind the main castle doors unseen.

The duke's men spotted me during the fight and I ran to the castle's top floor with those two chasing me, both armed with crossbows. They eventually cornered me in the balcony room and I begged them to stop and leave me alone, but they refused to listen and they shot at me with their weapons."

Anna gasped in horror.

"I used my magic to thwart them off and just kept coming at me. As my battle with them progressed and they wouldn't stop fighting me and leave as I wanted, I realized that it was either them or me and so I snapped and fought back in anger.

I came close to killing the two until Prince Hans and the guards entered the room and saw what I was doing. Hans convinced me to stop and spare them and I did after realizing what I almost became and I was terrified of it.

Then one of them tried to shoot an arrow at me, but Hans stepped in and quickly deflected the shot by aiming it at the ceiling. That caused the chandelier decoration above me to detach and fall. You remember seeing it from when you were there, right?"

"Uh-huh." Anna replied.

"I fled in time from being crushed to death, but the impact it made when it landed on the ground pushed me off my feet and knocked me unconscious, allowing Hans and the guards to capture me and take me back to Arendelle.

I later woke up inside the castle dungeon wearing steel mitt shackles on my hands because they thought it could stop me from using my ice magic, which it didn't as I will explain in a moment. Hans paid me a visit a minute later and I asked him why he brought me back and he said he couldn't just let the duke's assassins kill me. I asked for you and he said you hadn't returned. He then pleaded with me to end the winter and bring summer back, but I told him I couldn't do it and I asked him to tell the guards to release me and he said he would do what he can and left me alone in the dungeon cell.

Eventually, Hans returned to my cell with some guards at his side to fetch me because, according to what they told me after accepting me as queen, after Hans left me, he charged me with treason against Arendelle and sentenced me to death."

Anna began to grow angry.

"Ironic, isn't it? I lived alone in my room for thirteen years, then later in life, I wanted to be alone in the mountains and then I was left alone in the depths of my own dungeon. Honestly, from the way Hans handled that man with the crossbow, I believe he did it not to save me from the assassins, but to have the chandelier crush me to death and make it look like an accident at the same time as part of his original plan of taking Arendelle while secretly taking credit for killing me. With me out of the picture, he could have easily pinned my death on the duke's men since the guards were witnesses and the duke himself for ordering it, which is kinda true as it turned out that he really did order his bodyguards to kill me when he sent them with Hans' search party, and the truth of what could have happened there would have died with me and nobody would ever know."

Now Anna was scared and angered that Arendelle's very own then-misunderstood queen and her only family was attacked, almost murdered, caged up and almost wrongly executed.

"How could they do all those horrible things to you, Elsa?! How could they put you in the dungeon?! You're the queen and that wasn't right at all!" she asked angrily. The thought itself infuriated her to the core.

"They were under Hans' command. He was Arendelle's regent when you and I were gone, remember?" Elsa told her. "Besides, it was his idea actually. I was informed that during the time I was unconscious and was brought back to Arendelle, most of the castle staff, Kai and Gerda included, strongly opposed Hans' choice to place me in the dungeon. Kai and Gerda suggested that I be put in one of the rooms instead because they believed that the dungeon would bring back my depressing memories of the years of staying in my room all day, every day, but Hans refused and did the deed anyway. He also locked away the two assassins the instant we returned, which I admit was the one thing I believed he did right until the events that transpired out there today."

Anna knew Elsa was right and she felt really stupid for leaving that bastard prince in charge of things. All the things he could have done with that kind of power. All the possible horrors he could have subjected upon everybody. There were worse things he could have done to everyone else besides the royal sisters.

"I was in the castle when you were. Good lord, Elsa! We were together in the same place, but separated by the dungeon and the library! Hans turned his back on me at that point. He said that nobody would ever love me and he put out the library's fireplace to speed up my freezing illness while confessing his reason for being in Arendelle and said he was going to kill you to look like some big-shot hero before trapping me in the library to freeze to death! But luckily, Olaf found me in time and re-lit the fireplace to keep me warm and alive longer. If it weren't for him, I would've never been able to prevent Hans from killing you out there."

Elsa gasped and her heart jumped in her chest. She couldn't believe Hans would say those horrible things to Anna and that he denied her any heat to make her freeze faster. She could have searched for Anna when she freed herself from the dungeon, but she was too focused on fleeing Arendelle in her own emotional blizzard instead. While grateful to hear Olaf helped her (which also explained how that guard and servant from before were able to have lit torches in their grasps to light the village fire pit), Elsa was starting to feel like a terrible sister at that point for not bothering to look for Anna and her snowflakes returned.

Anna saw the snowflakes and knew what it meant, but she didn't mention anything about it because her mind was focused on the fact that Elsa was jailed in her own home's dungeon and almost died unlawfully. The thought infuriated her.

Imprisoning and executing a monarch was possible sometimes. It's happened before in other parts of the world.

Still, Anna felt that what Elsa had been put through since the discovery of her powers was wrong and immoral, locking her away and putting cuffs on her for something she was born with and not in control of. She never chose to have her ice magic, it just came with her from the moment she was conceived. That was like punishing someone just for being from a rival kingdom or being related to a criminal or a murderer or something else similar to those things. The hypothetical person was not at fault for someone else's misdeeds or because another country disliked his or her homeland and assumed that all people from said disliked homeland were evil, just like Elsa's capture and incarceration was simply because she had something nobody else had and judged her without knowing all about it first.

Anna also blamed herself for Elsa's misfortune in the dungeon. As Elsa put it, she named Hans as Arendelle's regent in her and Elsa's absence and with that kind of power, Hans was able to make whatever decision he wished, which explains the imprisonment.

As for the capital punishment part, Anna remembered Hans saying that he planned to kill Elsa and Anna now knew he meant in the form of execution before switching to how he nearly did it in the then-frozen fjord.

Elsa resumed her story starting with how she was able to evade her unjust death sentence.

"As I was saying, I froze my cell and literally broke out just as they entered to get me and Hans went after me in the blizzard caused by my stress and fears. He told me that I could not run from what I did and I told him to take care of you if you were ever found as I intended to flee Arendelle forever and never return. But he said that you had already returned and froze to death before anything could be done and that it was all my fault.

What he said devastated me and I collapsed to my hands and knees and the blizzard subsided for the moment. I was so distracted by the false news to notice Hans had drawn his sword and raised it in the air with the intention to kill me.

It was there that you stepped in and took the hit for me, which is also the unfortunate part where you . . . turned into ice completely. Hans was incapacitated from the effect of hitting your frozen form and I turned around, saw you covered in ice and I placed my hands on your face, begging for you to recover and thaw, but you didn't and I literally cried on your shoulder."

Aside from the emotion snowflakes, Elsa began to tear up at the memory, but she still kept telling her story to Anna, struggling through the painful memories.

"Olaf, Kristoff and his reindeer friend were standing close as I sobbed over you. Then the guards and dignitaries approached me and told me that they saw everything and realized Hans' true intentions. They apologized for everything that happened to me, gave their sympathies for your death, informed me that the citizens were also now aware of the truth about Hans and me and pleaded with me to reclaim my position as queen even though the winter was still present.

I was in disbelief that they wanted me back in spite of what my magic had done. I thought all of Arendelle hated me even more and wished to finished what Hans could not, but that was untrue. While I was still upset and in mourning, I accepted their offer and I walked back to the castle with them.

Every single person all over Arendelle offered their condolences, paid their respects and sided with me like the guards and dignitaries did, not caring about the weather and expressed their admiration for me and my magic.

When Hans was seen being brought by the guards to be placed in the dungeon for his crimes, the people immediately turned their backs on him, in two ways if you know what I mean, and renounced whatever hope and allegiance they had to him and no longer saw him as their king, just a lonely, evil prince and a liar. I assume he probably would have suffered a beating by them similar to what you gave him were it not for their their wish to respect my grieving time.

After returning as queen and taking some time to grieve for you, I tended to the people who were affected by my magic. I was asked if a funeral service for you would be held and I said to reschedule that for later because I didn't feel right about tending to my needs first and leaving them to fend for themselves since I was the reason Arendelle was a complete mess and they allowed me back into their lives. I know it sounds cold, no pun intended, but doing my things first seemed selfish to me."

Touched by that, Anna placed her left hand on Elsa's shoulder, the one without her special braid.

"Elsa, it's okay. I was dead already and you didn't wish for anyone else to join me. What you did was perfectly understandable and noble, just like I said earlier. If it were you that died instead of me, which choice would you have wanted me to have done first? Tend to the public's emergency needs or arrange a memorial service for you?" Anna asked hypothetically.

Elsa thought about it, remembering her own hypothetical view of what Anna would have done if roles had been reversed.

"I would have wanted you to help everyone first." she answered.

"See? We both have a similar way of thinking when it comes to things like that. At least you did lots of good out there when I was temporarily gone."

Elsa smiled at Anna's choice of words. She knew she did what was right even if one half of it sounded wrong.

"I have another thing I need to ask and I know you hate remembering it." said Anna.

"What?" Elsa asked.

"How was Hans able to order you to be executed? I mean, I may have made him a regent, but I don't think he was allowed to sentence people to death. Only a king or queen, our parents back when they were alive and as of three days ago, you, have the power to pull that off and Hans was most certainly no king since he never married either one of us to be one which is what he said he wanted all along."

Elsa bit her lip, knowing that the answer to Anna's question was going to really make Anna erupt like a raging volcano, but she told her anyway.

"Actually, according to the dignitaries, Hans told them that you and him exchanged wedding vows right before you 'died' in the castle, which made him Arendelle's new king and that allowed him to overthrow me and condemn me to die."

The words left an unholy taste in her mouth and she braced herself for Anna's upcoming verbal wrath.

"_**WHAT!?**_ He said I **_married_** him and that I died before it actually happened!? That's just . . . that's just so downright degrading, evil and humiliating! I mean, I was foolish and naive to want to marry him back when I thought he was kind and caring, but after his backstabbing betrayal of me . . .! Ohh, that makes me so mad, I want to hurt him even more! I want to stomp on his unmentionables over and over and over again until he's unable to pee or have children, god forbid!" Anna said in a fit of rage. Just thinking about it made her want to break something out of fury other than Hans' bones.

Elsa knew her sister was just venting and she did not blame her as she predicted this would happen. But she had to get her to stop her fit before she did or said anything regrettable, kind of like what Elsa felt and almost did during the Weselton men's assassination attempt on her and it was something she did not wish for Anna to go through.

"Anna! Anna, please calm down! I know you're mad at Hans for that! I am too, but we can't let what Hans did get to us or he wins regardless of his current status!" Elsa told her angry princess sister.

If Anna had magic too and the negative side of it was triggered by her emotions like Elsa's own powers were, the room would be in a big, frightening mess right now.

Soon, Anna was calm and back to her old self.

"I'm, I'm sorry Elsa. I don't know what came over me. It just infuriated and hurt me inside when I heard you say he married me in order to have you killed." Anna said in sorrow.

Elsa embraced her in a comforting hug.

"I know, Anna. It's alright. You were just letting out your inner pain. It also hurt me the first time too."

The two sisters sat down to ease the tension.

"I think the reason you wished to marry Hans so quickly was because you went without anyone to enjoy life with for a long time and you were so desperate for companionship, you were willing to enter marriage to fill the void. I think it's my fault you wanted to wed him because I avoided you all those years which made you lonely." Elsa said, her head lowering and her eyes staring at the floor.

Anna hated hearing Elsa blame herself for that and refused to believe or say it was true and that it was her fault, although the only thing she had to admit Elsa was right about was her reason for wanting to marry Hans. She was lonely for years because Elsa refused to come out and play or talk to her and when she met Hans when she got older and spent time with him, comparing their so-called love to being an open door or whatever the hell that was, she finally felt a sense of belonging and having someone to talk to and have fun with again and that is what blinded Anna to Hans' true personality.

"I don't care about that anymore Elsa and it's not your fault. You were inexperienced with and terrified of your powers and you shut yourself away for my safety. While you're right about the part of me being lonely for years, I shouldn't have let it influence me into making a bad choice that would have proven even more dastardly and stupid than it already was." Anna said to her.

Elsa wiped her eyes as she was shedding tears again.

"I know how sorry you are for everything, Elsa, but I don't blame you for them. You're my sister and my only living relative left in the whole world and I will never, ever be angry at you for the years of ignorance and stuff. Like I said back out there, I love you and I always will until the day I die, by which I mean of old age when I become an old woman in the future and not . . . forget about it." Anna assured.

"Thanks Anna. I love you too and I always will until we one day rejoin mother and father in death."

Anna thought that was beautiful, or beautifuller as she put in during the coronation. What a joy it would be to one day see their parents in whatever afterlife they were in and be happy for eternity. But until then, they would enjoy their young lives on earth while they still can. All the bad things that happened in the past is in the past and living in the now and making a great future for themselves and the people of Arendelle was all that mattered.

After a short pause, Anna asked. "So what plans do you have for today now that everything is right as rain again?

Elsa thought about it.

"Well, I was thinking about throwing a big party in the courtyard and castle to celebrate the end of winter, the return of summer, your resurrection and my return as queen of Arendelle."

"Ooohh! Sounds like fun! When does it start? Who'll you invite?" Anna asked eagerly.

"Tonight and everybody! Well, everybody except four certain people who are to be expelled from our kingdom today. I'm also thinking about cutting off all trade with Weselton because of the duke's persecution and regicide attempt against me, at least until he's no longer in power and someone more thoughtful and understanding of people like me, assuming there are others with magic like myself, replaces him as the new duke of his country. I don't want the current duke _murdered_, of course, but . . . oh you know what I mean, silly." Elsa said when she realized she was starting to babble like her strawberry color-haired sibling.

_I guess it runs in our family._ She thought humorously.

"Indeed I do." said Anna.

Kai later showed up to check on the royal ladies and Elsa gave out the instructions she wanted carried out that she told Anna she would do.

"At once, Your Majesty and Highness." he said and departed to have Queen Elsa's wishes fulfilled immediately.

"So, tell me. How does it feel to be queen again?" Anna asked.

"It feels incredible! I used to fear being handed this job one day because of my powers, but now I love it!" Elsa answered.

"Speaking of your powers, what about the fact that everyone knows about you having them?"

"Boy, it feels so good to no longer have to hide them anymore. That and keeping my queen status at the same time makes life worth living again!"

"Good for you!" Anna said and they hugged again, something Elsa is now happy to finally do when she felt she could not before and left the room.

"From this day forth, there are to be no secrets from us." Anna said.

"Okay. No more secrets ever again." said Elsa.

"We should start getting ready for your party, Elsa! P-A-R-T. Why? Because we just gotta!" Anna said, making Elsa chuckle from her way with words. That was the silly Anna she missed all these years and now she was back and better than ever.

While both sisters were happy that everything worked out for the better and they could finally live their lives in peace and prosperity, Anna still had some unfinished business to attend to before Elsa's party plan could begin.

Anna refused to inform Elsa about it because she knew her elder sister would try to talk her out of it and Anna wanted to get it out of the way as soon as possible.

* * *

Hans Westergard, the Duke of Weselton and his hired bodyguards, were placed back inside the dungeon. Each man was placed in separate cells in response to the recent event outside.

The two guards who were incapacitated earlier were retrieved from the dungeon and given the same medical inspection Anna had for their injuries. Lucky for them, it was nothing serious, just a headache and bruising which should disappear soon and they would be able to return to their jobs when fully recovered.

Hans spent most of his time in his cell laying down on his stone bed because of his groin injury thanks to Princess Anna. He never walked around because doing so caused him discomfort and pain. His eye was swollen and now as black as an olive and his throat had a red-colored boot sole print, two additional injuries placed on him by Anna as retaliation for his deeds.

The duke learned everything that happened outside and while he was a little glad Anna was alive again, he was also disappointed that Elsa survived and is still in control of Arendelle. He scolded his bodyguards for their failure of bringing Elsa inside the dungeon to kill her and scolded Hans for lying to them again and ruining their plan with his personal vendetta against the sisters.

The prince never said a word to him or at all. If his hands were not rebound in the hand shackles that held him before the breakout, he would have made a "blah-blah-blah" motion with his hand as a mockery of the duke's constant nagging and inability to shut up, just like his former fiance.

The dungeon doors suddenly opened and in stepped four guards, each armed with spears, swords and crossbows.

"Get up now! On your feet!" their leader said aloud. The man's voice echoed throughout the dungeon.

Each guard separated to gather a prisoner and hauled them out of their cells and faced the captain of the guards.

"What now? Did the queen send you here to taunt her victory at us instead of coming to do it herself?" the duke asked the guards.

"No. We are here because by order of Her Majesty Queen Elsa of Arendelle, for your crimes against the kingdom's royal family, all four of you are officially banished from the kingdom of Arendelle indefinitely and you will be penalized to the fullest extent of local law should you ever return to Arendelle territory." the guard leader declared.

"I thought she refused to banish us and preferred to keep us here." said the duke.

"That was when Arendelle was covered in Her Majesty's magical snow and she did not know how to remove it. Now that she has, it is now possible to send you on your way as the queen commands."

"Move it!" one of the guards said harshly. The guards escorted the prisoners out at crossbow point, ready to shoot them down if they tried anything.

Almost all of the civilians got a glimpse of the four men responsible for trying to ruin their home and their royal queen and princess. They were either ignored or scorned by every man, woman and child.

Some yelled insults at them, others said they should be turned into ice statues like Anna was, but never thawed.

Soon, the guards brought the captives to the docks and forced them to march to two ships that were set to sail them to their homelands.

Hans tripped and sprained his ankle and yelled in pain. But the guards took no pity on him for his recently-received injury as they picked him up roughly like it was nothing. Hans had to limp to his ship from there.

When they reach the ship that was meant to depart for the Southern Isles, one guard took hold of Hans due to his limping, boarded the vessel, aggressively tossed the disgraced prince inside a holding cell onboard and slammed the cell door shut and walked away.

A bucket landed on Hans' head when he was thrown in and he took it off and looked around. He didn't need mind-reading powers to know what agonizing fate awaited him when that ship reached the shores of the Southern Isles. He hoped his injuries healed fully by then because he was going to need his strength to deal with his brothers.

Not only would he face serious punishment by them for what he did in Arendelle, he was also in for endless, deep humiliation when they learn that their youngest brother had suffered a vicious beating at the hands, and feet, of a woman, and not just any woman, a princess.

Not only would they never let him live it down, but perhaps neither will the entire nation. For years, even centuries long after he's dead, people in the future will forever remember and hate Hans Westergard as the wicked prince who got beat up by the princess of Arendelle for usurpation and murder.

"I will return this scoundrel to his country. We shall see what his twelve big brothers think of his behavior." said the French dignitary who was also the operator of the ship. He was wearing bandages around his arm from where Hans stabbed him during his fourth and final attempt against Anna and Elsa earlier, courtesy of Queen Elsa.

"Arendelle thanks you, m'lord." Kai said.

He was about to ask if his arm will be okay when they both heard the sound of the Weselton duke complaining about his exile and turned their heads to observe. The duke's bodyguards were present, but remained silent.

"This is unacceptable! I am a victim of fear! I've been traumatized!" he said to the guards.

He then feigned injury to gain sympathy and get his escorts to change their minds about going through with forcing him on the ship. It was just another trick to see Elsa and say only he knew what to her.

"Ahh! My neck hurts! Is there a doctor that I could see . . .?

He noticed the guards were not buying his act as they stared at the duke with a shared look on their silent faces that appeared to say, "Do you take us for fools, old man?"

With his act having failed, the duke returned to his grouchy self.

"No? I _demand_ . . . to see the queen!" he yelled, sounding similar to how he spoke to the other guards who earlier prevented him from going anywhere near Elsa and dragged him to the dungeon for speaking insultingly about her.

Kai took this opportunity to speak to the duke with a grin of mischief on his face.

"Oh, I have a message from the queen." he said and took out a big scroll and read what it said aloud.

The duke took a quick peek at the scroll as Kai spoke.

"Arendelle will henceforth and no longer do business of any sort . . . with 'Weaseltown'!" he said smugly to the duke, knowing that his mispronunciation of the name of the duke's home, (which he did intentionally this time unlike last time when he introduced Elsa to the duke and mispronounced Weselton by mistake, irritating the duke who then corrected him.) would greatly annoy him which he was going for and it worked.

"Weselton! It's Weselton!" the duke whined as he and his goons were taken aboard. The thugs went without resistence while the duke wiggled and squirmed, prompting the guards to lift and carry him onboard by force.

Kai mockingly waved goodbye to the duke and left the docks to rejoin the castle and help prepare for Elsa's upcoming celebration event.

* * *

Anna stood in the library with several guards summoned by her. They also happened to be the same guards who imprisoned Elsa and attempted to help Hans carry out his execution sentence intended for the queen earlier.

She intended to have a word with them about those events and she wanted to get it off her chest while she can. She knew that they were on her and Elsa's side once again and that they were duped into believing and helping Hans seize control of Arendelle like everyone else had, but unlike Elsa, she could not forgive them until she heard their side of the story first.

"You summoned for us, Princess Anna?" one of them asked.

Anna sat on the couch she previously laid on when Hans turned on her. Although the room brought back the dark memories of that moment, she chose the place for the quick, private meeting to show them what transpired inside.

"Yes, I did. I called all of you in here to discuss the treatment that was bestowed upon my sister during the winter crisis."

She put her bubbly personality aside and spoke in a serious manner to reflect her mood.

The guards knew Anna wasn't happy aside from the way she spoke.

"Elsa doesn't know about this meeting because I knew she would try to stop me if I told her. Although she and I made it our personal policy to never again hide secrets from each other, this will be, what I hope is, the final time it will ever happen now that things are repaired, so let's get down to business and quick as Elsa's celebration is to begin tonight and I do not want to miss it."

Anna cleared her throat.

"Now, I know all of you have decided to remain loyal to her again now that everything's out and she and I are appreciative of that, but before the winter faded, she told me earlier about the invasion of her ice-built castle in the mountains and what happened there. She says you and Hans dragged her back here to the castle after she was injured and incapacitated and you chained her down in the dungeon like some wild animal on Hans' order when he was the kingdom's regent.

Then she told me that Hans said he and I married each other before I supposedly died and that our so-called marriage made him Arendelle's new ruler and that allowed him to overthrow Elsa whom you imprisoned and he pressed phony baloney treason charges against her and sentenced my sister to die. What disturbs me besides those things is the fact that nobody had ever even bothered to check on me to confirm if I was truly dead as he said, which I never was in the first place.

In case you're all wondering what happened here before the thing on the fjord, Hans betrayed me right here in this very spot by refusing to kiss me to break my freezing heart curse that my sister unintentionally brought on me at her mountain castle. That's right, I was there before you and I begged her to come home with me and help her work everything out. I even told her about what happened to Arendelle which she was unaware of because she didn't look back when she ran away and this frightened her even more. When she told me to leave and I refused, she poofed up a giant snow creature to literally throw me out of her castle because she thought she was too dangerous to be in public and infecting my heart with it fully convinced her of this. Hans confessed that he came to Arendelle to marry either Elsa or myself to claim our throne and he admitted to me that if he did wed one of us, he would then stage a little accident for whomever he married, then secretly kill the surviving in-law to ensure there was no one else in line to take the crown and rule Arendelle all on his own. He wished to be king here or in some other kingdom if he had bypassed Arendelle because he said he could never obtain the throne to his own homeland due to him being the thirteenth in line there and had to marry elsewhere to achieve his goal.

He proceeded to shut the window to seal in the cold air, put out the fireplace and the candle to prevent me from staying warm and decrease my chances of survival and proclaimed that he would kill Elsa and save Arendelle from the winter curse, even though I'm not so certain that Elsa's death would have actually ended her winter mishap if he or the duke's men were to succeed in killing her and I don't ever want to know. Then he exited the room and locked the door, trapping me inside and leaving me to die alone."

The guards had stunned looks on their faces.

"I screamed for someone to help me which nobody did and I tried to open the door, but I was too weak and was getting weaker by the second. Just when I thought I was finished and Hans would get away with murdering Elsa and stealing my and her kingdom, Olaf, her other snowman who is much friendlier than the one at the North Mountain, opened the door from the outside and found me shivering to death. He re-lit the fireplace with a wooden match and helped me over to get warm. After he helped me escape the library, we ventured outside the castle grounds and onto the frozen fjord where I hurried to reunite with the ice harvester Kristoff Bjorgman because Olaf made me realize that Kristoff loved me and I hoped he was the one to break the curse that was killing me.

I saw him at a far distance and I was going to rush to him and save myself at last when I heard the sound of a blade weapon sliding and I saw Hans standing over Elsa, holding his sword and preparing to kill her. With only seconds to spare, I dismissed Kristoff in order to save Elsa from being killed. The last thing I remember was standing directly between Hans and Elsa, holding my hand out to block his attack. Then the next thing I knew, I woke up with Elsa and Kristoff kneeling over me and, everyone knows what happened next and I shouldn't have to explain it.

I know leaving Hans in charge was my idea after I left to find Elsa and bring her back after our little spat unleashed her magic and I admit it was stupid of me to want to marry Hans instantly without fully knowing him, which is part of what made Elsa freeze everything without her knowledge of it and run off. But still, like I said a minute ago, what you and Hans did to her during the crisis has been eating away at me and while Elsa told me she forgave you for that, I'm not so certain I can without an explanation. As princess of Arendelle, I demand to hear your side of the story."

Anna was not usually the rough, demanding type, but at this point, she wanted to know the full details of Elsa's capture and treatment and refused to let them leave until she got what she wanted.

One guards spoke for the rest.

"Your Highness, we're really sorry about those things, we truly are. We were under Hans' orders then since he was the kingdom's regent. After you left to go after Elsa, your horse later returned to Arendelle without you and we feared something bad may have happened to you and Hans decided to go find you and the queen and bring both of you back and we accompanied him for the mission."

Anna remembered her horse running away after she fell off.

"When we reached her ice construct, we got in a dangerous scuffle with her snowman creature and during that battle, the duke's men snuck past to pursue your sister without us. After we defeated the snow monster, we ran into the castle and saw what Queen Elsa was doing to the duke's men with her magic. She had one of them pinned against a wall with ice spikes and the other was being shoved off the castle's balcony. Her Majesty was dead serious on killing them, although like Hans said later, their assassination attempt on her earned them her wrath and we sort of agreed with that. But we assure you, Princess, that the attempt on Queen Elsa's life was their and the duke's idea, not ours. Our mission was to only find you and the queen without harming her.

Hans told Elsa to stop what she was doing and it worked, but then one of the duke's men tried to-"

"Yes, yes. I know all about that part. My sister told me all about it earlier. I don't mean to sound pushy, but I'd appreciate it if you'd just skip to the part where Hans lied about my death and our fake marriage and tried to use his false authority to have Elsa killed." Anna said.

The guard cleared his throat and did as told.

* * *

The castle guards waited outside of the meeting room where the duke of Weselton and the foreign dignitaries waited. All of them had relocated there to give Hans and Anna some privacy to work things out with Anna's new problem.

They heard the duke mention they would all freeze to death and that action against Elsa must be taken.

As the men inside carried out their conversation, the guards saw Prince Hans walking and approaching the room without Anna. He had a sad expression on his face, meaning that something was very wrong.

"Prince Hans. What troubles you? Where is Princess Anna?" one of the guards asked.

Hans said nothing and entered the meeting room.

The dignitaries and the duke started speaking to Hans. The guards couldn't help overhear everything.

They heard Hans say Anna was dead, frozen to death by Elsa's magic.

"Her own sister?" the duke asked with worry.

Everyone was surprised that the duke showed concern for Anna after all the things he said about her when Elsa's powers were revealed.

The guards expected Hans or one of the dignitaries to say to the duke, "What do you care? You accused her of being a sorceress and plotting Arendelle's destruction with Elsa." But none of that was said.

"At least we got to say our wedding vows right before she died." Hans added. Due to their romance for one another, to everyone in that room and out, it made sense that they married and to top that off, his new, yet short-lived marriage to Anna officially made Hans Westergard the new king of Arendelle, succeeding the late King Agdar, Queen Idun and, as of right now, Queen Elsa.

"Prince Hans, Arendelle looks to you." said one of the dignitaries. They all gathered around Hans, waiting for him to speak his first words as king.

"With a heavy heart, I charge Queen Elsa of Arendelle with treason and sentence her to death." Hans said sadly.

Everyone gasped and so did the guards. The only one not affected by this new order was the duke. He had wanted to get rid of Elsa and it looked like it was about to happen.

"You are doing the right thing, Prince Hans." he said.

"That's _King_ Hans to you now, duke. You will do well to address me as such from this point on." Hans sternly told the old man, remembering his earlier treatment of Elsa and Anna, even though he secretly didn't care. "You should consider yourself lucky I haven't locked you up with your bodyguards after they tried to murder the former queen at her mountain retreat which I assume was your idea."

"I sent them to help capture Elsa, not kill her! How was I supposed to know they would do such a thing in my absence? I may not have liked her for her magic, but that did not mean I wanted her dead. I also did not wish for Princess Anna to die in spite of my behavior toward her because of Elsa's sorcery. If she were still alive, I would most certainly apologize to her for what I said to her." the duke lied. Well, for the first part while the second part was probably true.

"And besides, aren't you about to do the same thing they did?"

"What your men did was unauthorized and unjustified. She was still the queen when it happened, meaning that what they did then was attempted regicide and I gave them explicit instructions not to bring any harm to Elsa, but did they listen? No, and they nearly paid for it with their lives if I had not stopped Elsa from killing them. Because Elsa killed her own sister and plagued Arendelle with that magic of hers, that makes her eligible for capital punishment as or so I believe and, not that I like this, which I don't as I said the words 'with a heavy heart' before passing out the sentence, I also have reason to believe that her death may eliminate her winter spell over the land. When I went to visit her in the dungeon, I asked her to end her spell and she said she could not do it. I don't know if she meant she could not or would not, but either way, it's done incredible damage to this nation and it claimed a life just recently. It is the duty of monarchs to protect their kingdoms and Elsa failed when she had her chance. Now that I am a king myself, it's my duty to save Arendelle from this winter plague as well as prevent my original homeland from suffering the same fate if this winter reaches there and the only way to do that, as well as getting justice for the late Princess Anna and my wife, is to eliminate Elsa via capital punishment, starting now."

With that said, Hans stood up from his chair and walked out of the room.

He gestured to the guards standing outside. "You, come with me. I shall need your help with Elsa in case she puts up any resistance, which I'm certain she will."

"Your Majesty, are you sure you wish to go through with this? Even Princess Anna would have probably rejected this decision."

"Believe me, I really don't want to do this, but like I said in there, Elsa has given me no choice and it's the only way to free Arendelle from her curse. Besides, I'm not entirely sure, but I believe Anna would have done the same thing if I were the one to perish by Elsa's hand rather than her even though I admit it would be more painful for her since they were sisters. I should know, I have twelve brothers back in my homeland and if one of them had magic and abused it to the point of killing like Elsa did, I'd feel the exact same way." Hans said.

Shaking off the news inside the room, the guards followed Hans to fetch Elsa for her execution. However, deep inside themselves, they were getting a strange feeling that what they were helping Hans do was wrong and that they shouldn't go through with it.

Even though Anna was gone, Elsa was all that was left of their previous king and queen and if their eldest daughter was dead, their family linage would be extinct.

But Hans Westergard was their new king now and they had to obey his commands now that Elsa was deemed a traitor, a murderer and stripped of her title and their only other heir was deceased because of Elsa.

However, one of the guards strayed away from the group and decided to go check the library to see if Anna was dead. He watched his comrades and new king walk away to the dungeon, none of them noticing he was gone. He had to see for himself to make sure they were doing the right thing as the duke said.

What he was doing was considered disobedience and treason to the crown and it could earn him a fate in prison or something else, but a nagging feeling in his mind wouldn't go away until he went through this. He figured what King Hans didn't know wouldn't hurt anyone and that it couldn't be treason as long as he didn't get caught.

The lone guard approached the hallway leading to the library and discovered the hallway filled with large icicles. Another part of the former queen's magic.

He squeezed through, being careful not to hurt himself.

When he made it to the library, he found its door already open and when he looked inside, he didn't see Anna anywhere. She was gone.

_This makes no sense. If Princess Anna is dead, her body should be here because this is where she was last seen. Where is she?_ The guard thought.

Hans said she was dead, but her body was gone. He also saw some snowy footprints on the floor. He crouched down to look at them more closely and recognized them as Anna's footprints from her boots. Hans wore boots too, but his were different in size and type. Dead people do not move about.

Something was wrong here.

The guard was beginning to believe that perhaps it was a good thing he deserted his post because were it not for that, he would not have been able to make this discovery.

Hans may have perhaps lied to everyone about the death of the princess.

The man also thought that Hans may have also lied about his marriage to Anna as well because the guard certainly didn't remember there being any religious servant in here to conduct a wedding for them which was how most marriages were performed. Without a licensed priest, bishop or minister around, like the one that crowned Elsa queen a few days ago, it was not possible to marry people.

Because of these uprising suspicions and the possibility of Anna still being alive, the guard suddenly realized that Elsa was about to be executed for a murder that never happened at all! She was in mortal danger!

Just then, Kai and Gerda appeared.

"Good lord! What are you doing here? Where are Princess Anna and Prince Hans? Weren't they supposed to be here breaking Anna's dangerous issue?" Gerda asked the lone guard.

The guard then took a second to remember that these two were not around when Hans told his story to everyone else in that other room.

He told the servants what happened, his suspicions and what was going to happen and they gasped in horror after learning everything.

"My god! Princess Anna could still be alive and Queen Elsa's about to be killed over nothing! We have to stop them before they make an irreversible, tragic error!" Kai said.

"Go inform the duke and dignitaries about what I just told you two! I will handle saving our queen!" the guard said. Yes, he called Elsa "queen", now that he was aware that Arendelle was now under the rule of an illegal king and Elsa was the true ruler after all.

The guard rushed out of the library to tell the others while Gerda and Kai ran to deliver the shocking news.

* * *

The dungeon entrance door opened and in stepped Hans and his new royal guards, here to collect Elsa and carry out her sentence.

One guards placed the key in the door's tumblers, twisted and pushed the door by the handle. But it wouldn't budge. It was the right key, but something was wrong.

They noticed the handle starting to freeze over and realized that the woman inside was the cause.

"Careful! She's dangerous!" one guard said.

"It won't open! It's frozen shut!"

"Open it!"

They heard and felt rumbling sounds coming from inside the cell and by the time they barged in, the cell was destroyed and Elsa was gone. A large gap exposed the outside and frozen fjord and Elsa was nowhere in sight.

Hans merged ahead to see for himself.

"What now, Your Majesty?" one guard asked.

"Wait here and protect the others. I shall see to the prisoner myself."

"But won't she try to harm you with her magic, Your Majesty?"

"Maybe, but perhaps there is a part of her I can reach into to convince her to return and face her punishment with dignity. If anything happens to me and I am not back by sundown, you are to evacuate the kingdom's residents immediately. Do you understand?"

"Yes, King Hans." said the guards.

"Good." Hans said and departed the cell through the new hole to hunt for Elsa.

A minute after Hans was gone, the same guard who left to check on Anna returned to them.

"What's going on here? Where are Hans and Queen Elsa?"

"Elsa has escaped her cell and King Hans has left to retrieve her and she is no longer the queen. Where were you? We thought you were with us."

"I snuck off to the library!

"You left your post?"

"I had to and it's a good thing I did because I have just made a recent discovery about our new king! He is not who he claims to be!"

"What makes you say that?"

"Princess Anna is not in the library!"

"We know because she is dead, killed by the hands of her own sister."

"No, I mean she's not there because her body is not actually nowhere to be found! There are footprints inside the library that suggest she is still alive!"

"Impossible! King Hans said she was dead!"

"Well obviously, it was a lie! If Princess Anna is dead, why would she not be in the place where she was last seen? I am telling you, that woman, our own queen, is innocent of any wrongdoing and we almost made the mistake of killing her!"

The guards became silent and only the howling wind was heard from the gap in the cell.

"What are you saying?" another guard asked frantically.

"I'm saying that Hans is not our king! He lied about what he said back in that room! Princess Anna was never dead! She and him never became husband and wife because there was no holy servant around to marry them and he was, and still is, trying to commit double murder and regicide in order to steal the throne and take Arendelle for himself! Don't you get it!? Hans Westergard has tricked us all and has planned this from the minute he came here!" the returned guard finished.

"Do the dignitaries and the duke know about this?"

"They will. Kai and Gerda happened to find me inspecting the library and I informed them of my suspicions about Hans and of the two monarchs merely being victims of his diabolical plot!"

"Good god! It all makes sense! What fools we were! How could we trust Hans and turn on Elsa without any actual evidence! Come, we must find a way to save our true queen and stop Hans, who is a prince once more!"

Now that they were on to Hans' plot, the guards immediately defected from Prince Hans and were once again allied with Elsa.

_Queen_ . . . Elsa.

Because they were not wearing clothing to protect them from the cold blizzard outside, caused by the now-current queen as a result of her own fears, the guards raced out of the dungeon and went to see the dignitaries and duke.

By the time they got there, they saw Kai and Gerda standing with the foreigners who now had looks on their faces that told the guards they knew everything.

"They know?" the guard asked the servants.

"Yes, they do. We informed them what you told us in the library." Gerda said.

"How could all of us have been so blind!? Queen Elsa and Princess Anna have been betrayed by King . . . sorry, _Prince_ Hans, and he was attempting to steal the kingdom from them all along! That is a mere outrage!" the French dignitary stated.

The others agreed with him.

The duke remained silent during the chatter for reasons only he knew. But he was surprised about this startling news as everyone else.

"Where is the queen? Has Hans already . . .?" the Spanish man asked.

"No, he has not, thank god. Her Majesty escaped her cell before we could reach her and is out loose in that blizzard which we believe is triggered by her stress from what we almost did. Hans is out there trying to finish the job and we pray he does not succeed. We have also severed all loyalty we had for Hans and are now back with Queen Elsa. She is our queen once again." the guards said.

"Well, what are we doing standing around here for?! We must go after them immediately!" the Irish dignitary replied.

Everyone agreed and prepared to venture outside the castle to rescue Elsa from Hans.

Although still silent, the duke accompanied them, wanting to see what would happen.

_So Hans deceived everyone the entire time as part of a ploy to take the throne of this kingdom? Even I admit that was rather cold and vile for him to do. He betrayed the people the entire time he stayed here and yet he had the gall to threaten _me_ with treason when he would eventually do the same after he brought that witch back. Nevertheless, in spite of his actions, I really hope he does kill that monster who once served as Arendelle's ruler for a day. Like he said, Anna deserves justice from her sister's actions and that is what she will get._ The duke thought.

The guards hurried to the armory to collect crossbows to hit Hans from a distance in case they can't reach him in a close one. They were going to take him out via the tower, so they can get a better visual of the scene outside than just charge at him with swords and spears.

They and the dignitaries and the duke scrambled to one of the balconies and when they did, the guards began to scan the harsh blizzard for their target. Because Hans was still royalty where he's from, they had to shoot to wound. That is, unless he proved to be extremely hostile in which in that case, they would have to kill him to save the lost queen.

From there, the French dignitary also saw what they thought they'd never see again.

Anna was moving blindly into the fjord, shouting something that could not be heard. Was she shouting for Elsa? Hans?

"Look! It's Princess Anna! Dear god! She really _is_ alive! Our guard was right!" said the French dignitary.

Everyone eyes the wandering princess and were in shock at seeing her. Hans _did_ lie about her death after all and their suspicions about Hans now made perfect sense. He really was a vicious man and he used his royal position to get rid of Elsa and Anna in order to rule.

"What is she looking for?" the Irish dignitary asked.

"Either the queen or her assailant."

They stopped when they spotted two other figures standing far from Anna and they were not Elsa or Hans.

The figures were the unnamed man and his reindeer companion who brought Anna back to the castle. Whoever the man was, they had a feeling he might have something to do with Anna's reason for being out there in the blizzard.

Just then, the blizzard storm paused. Snow no longer flew in all directions and just stood in place, making it easier to see the whole fjord.

While the people on the balcony could now see their princess running toward the stranger, they also caught a glimpse of Elsa kneeling on the ground, seemingly in pain which perhaps is the reason the storm had stopped, and then there was Hans, towering over her with a sword in his right hand.

"Hans is going to kill the queen! Somebody shoot him now!" one guard said aloud.

The same guard who broke away and discovered the truth first took aim and prepared to fire an arrow directly at Hans when he stopped upon seeing Anna rushing right over to the two and placing herself in front of Hans to prevent him from striking his fatal blow on Elsa.

Anna was seen turning into an ice statue at the very last second just as Hans struck her outstretched, frozen solid hand with his sword and a shock wave erupted and knocked the traitorous prince off his feet and on the ground unconscious.

For a long time, nobody said a word. They were in much shock and horror at what they just saw. The princess had just frozen and died for real after trying to save her sister from her evil fiance and they felt that part of these events are their fault for judging the new queen too early just because she had ice powers that nobody had ever heard of. It was no wonder she hid herself away from society since her childhood. She feared what the public's reaction to her magic would have been if it ever got out and she was right. It made her exile herself from the kingdom, it got her captured, imprisoned and almost executed and her only family paid the price to keep her alive.

They saw Elsa look up and see for herself what has become of Anna and stood up to face her. Elsa appeared to grasp her sister's frozen face, muttering something incoherent and then she was seen dangling over Anna's frozen body and crying for her.

The unidentified man and his reindeer approached and stood by observing, along with a little snowman who appeared to be alive and was also watching the sad scene.

The dignitaries and castle guards stood silently, observing the tragic sight. Now they felt very stupid and guilty for what Elsa went through and look how it turned out for her.

The duke looked on wordlessly. Mixed feelings clouded his brain. The only person he felt bad for was Anna since she had no magic. Elsa, not so much.

Now that the truth was exposed and Anna was truly gone, there was only one thing they could do at this time and that was to go down there, apologize to Elsa for everything and bring her back to the castle and hope she will resume her place as Arendelle's queen again and restore order with their help since they owe her.

Elsa was a good person all along and they let their judgement get the better of them and now they were eager to make it up to her

* * *

Their story ended there and Anna was still sitting, taking in what she was told. Her blank face made it difficult for the guards to tell what emotion she was feeling, although it was obvious she was feeling negative due to the nature of the explanation.

"Your Highness? Is there something wrong? Would you like a refreshment?" the speaking guard asked her.

In Anna's mind, she was feeling a combination of anger, betrayal, sadness and relief. Anger because of what happened to Elsa when she was not around. Betrayal because of not only Hans, but of what the guards nearly did to Elsa right before learning the truth. Sadness because of what she believed Elsa felt from the sight of her own guards turning on her, the guilt and emotion Elsa felt when she struggled to cope with her loss and of what life in Arendelle would have been like if Hans had killed them both and became the king forever and possibly ruling over the people, servants and guards with an iron fist and then relief because of the fact that his plan was foiled and even in the winter and after her short-lived passing, everyone still believed in Elsa, let her resume her reign, treated her fairly and now that the winter was gone, their belief and loyalty to Elsa has strengthened further and is beloved by the people now and it seemed it would last for the rest of her life and beyond.

"Your Highness, please say something. We're getting worried." said the guards.

After a few more seconds of silence, Anna broke her silence.

"So . . . you defected from Hans after you discovered his plot?"

"Y-yes, Princess." the guard leader said nervously, thinking she might be angry, which she was a little.

"And you tried to shoot him with an arrow before he could strike Elsa and before I put myself in front of him to stop him?"

"Correct, Princess. We stopped when you were near him and we couldn't risk hitting you."

Anna silenced herself again to give it some thought.

"In the aftermath, after we escorted the queen back to the castle to recuperate, we brought Hans in the dungeon and placed the same shackles Her Majesty wore earlier on him. Even though Queen Elsa never actually told us to do the latter part, we did it anyway to show him how the queen must have felt when she saw them on her hands. When Hans told us to restrain her after the incident in the mountains and had us place her inside the dungeon cell with those god-awful shackles on, even we were uncomfortable with our part in those. Nevertheless, Your Highness, we are deeply sorry for everything and we want to remain on good terms with you and your sister."

Anna gave it some thought again.

Then she stood up.

"Thank you for telling me the truth about everything. You may leave now." she said.

"At once, Your Highness." they replied and departed the library.

"Ah! Don't close the door. It . . . reminds me of what happened in here earlier today."

"Oh, of course, Your Highness." the leader said and they disappeared and Anna was alone in the very room she nearly died sooner.

She paced around, thinking. She figured that, like herself and Elsa, everyone else in Arendelle were also merely victims of Hans' lies and scheme just as much as them. He used his charm, looks, wit and royal status as a prince to slip by and all four of those things made him above suspicion due to the fact that authority figures were, most of the time, unsuspected for wrongdoing simply because of their positions until it's too late if one actually does the crime and someone sees. How were they supposed to know Hans' business of being here?

The guards did admit to feeling uneasy about proceeding with Hans' intention to execute her sister when she was a prisoner and once Hans' dark side was suspected and exposed, they did try to stop him from committing one of the biggest and most devious crimes in Arendelle's history and dragged him to the dungeon after he failed once they discovered Anna was still alive (for the moment) and Elsa was the opposite of who Hans and the duke said she was. They were the real monsters, not Elsa.

As for the forgiving part, Anna remembered Elsa saying that she pardoned the guards for their actions during the winter crisis and refused to punish them for it even though she had the power, both royal and magical, to deliver it because to Elsa, they were mere pawns of Hans' plot and therefore were innocent for it unlike the one who actually started it.

In other words, Elsa let it go. If Hans were king and someone defected from him, he would have, without a second thought, order that person jailed or executed with no second chance whatsoever. As Olaf said to Elsa, Hans would have made one terrible ruler here or perhaps in his own country were he selected to be king.

Elsa may have been quick to forgive the guards for their mistakes, but Anna was different and for her, this was going to take some time. While Elsa admitted she was sorry for all Anna went through during their childhood and teenage years, Anna had no need to forgive Elsa because there was nothing to forgive. Elsa was so afraid of her growing powers, she was willing to seal herself away to protect Anna, their parents and the kingdom. It was heart-wrenching and depressing for the family, but Elsa did it out of love, even the part where Elsa had her literally thrown out of the ice castle after making the mistake of freezing her heart, all for her own safety, and that's why Anna immediately refused to be angry with her for it. Elsa was just scared and confused then and that was no reason to hate her.

After several minutes passed, Anna came to a decision.

_Aw, what the heck. I'll cut them a break. It's only fair. After all, they figured Hans out and they at least made an effort to stop him before I did. Today's supposed to be a perfect day anyway and I don't want to spoil things later on with a grumpy mood. Plus, beating the stuffing out of Prince Chump of the Southern Isles felt so good. How I wish I could do it again. I wonder if I should have hit him hard enough to make him cry. That would've been great to see._ She thought and left the library to prepare for tonight's occasion.

* * *

**Well, the four villains have been kicked out for good, Elsa and Anna have made amends with each other, explanations have been given and everyone can move on.**

**Only one more chapter to go and I'm finished. You can pretty much guess what it will contain. The ending will also take place at night rather than day because I was at a night party and it inspired me to write it that way.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Here it is. The final chapter. It was a great run and all, but *wipes eyes with tissues* you know what they say, all good things must come to an end. Well, not all if you know what I mean. Some are meant to stay preserved and never gone, like ancient sculptures, ruins, classic movies and . . . Holy birthday cake! Now I'm starting to sound like Anna!**

**Curse you Frozen creators for rubbing Anna's charm and goofiness on me! You better make your upcoming Frozen 2 movie just as great as Frozen was . . . 'cause if you don't! *picks up crowbar and lightly taps it on my palm as a warning***

**Now then, movin' on!**

* * *

The invitation to Elsa's party spread across the village in a hurry and every man, woman and child was was offered one accepted immediately. They were excited to hear that their queen was having another celebration held. Most believed it was to make up for what happened at the coronation event.

Most of those people were right.

"Oh, what fun this will turn out to be!"

"There's no way I'm turning this down!"

"Two parties in one week? Wow!"

"That's very generous of Queen Elsa!"

These were the comments the people made in response to being invited for a night of fun and wonderful ice magic by the new queen herself.

* * *

Elsa watched from the castle's balcony, a smile plastered on her snow white face. While she could not hear the villagers' excitement over the upcoming party, she knew they wanted to come and would enjoy seeing her lovely ice magic in action.

Anna stopped by, holding an apple in her left hand. Anna had no idea Elsa was going to be there too. She thought she was the only one to come up there.

Elsa was unaware of Anna's presence and didn't seem to hear Anna coming and the princess decided to take advantage of this moment to play a little prank on her.

Putting her apple away in her dress' pockets, Anna quietly crept up Elsa while the latter's back was turned, a devilish grin on her lips.

She raised her arms out with the intent to wrap them around Elsa and yell "BOO!" to scare the queen for kicks.

The princess silently held in her breath as she inched closer.

When she was close enough, she prepared to "attack".

Until . . .

"Don't even think about it, Anna." Elsa said playfully without moving or looking.

Her cover blown, Anna exhaled with a raspberry and lowered her arms in defeat.

"How'd you know it was me?" Anna asked.

"I'm your sister. I know everything." Elsa replied. "Now where were have you been?"

"I thought you knew everything." Anna said slyly. Elsa giggled at her response.

Anna stood next to Elsa, sharing her view of everything below. She brought her apple back out and took a bite. She offered to share it with Elsa, but she declined.

"Sending out your party invitation to everybody?" Anna asked.

"Yep." Elsa said.

"You gonna make it an outdoor thing?"

"Yep."

"Kristoff is invited?"

"Yep."

"Sven too?"

"Yep."

"You gonna put on a magic show for the crowd later?"

"Yep."

"You know why I'm doing this to you?"

"Yep."

"Good."

The two stayed in silence.

Anna then remembered something.

"Elsa?"

"Hmm?"

"There's something I need to do and I was hoping you can help me with it."

"I'm listening."

Anna twisted one of her feet on the ground like a shy child.

"It's about what happened when Kristoff joined me in helping me find you. We were in the forest where-"

"Yes, I know all about that. Kristoff told me when you were still frozen."

"He did? Did he tell you about the part where his sled was lost and damaged, never to be used again?"

"Yes, he did."

"I . . . uh . . . I promised him I would replace his sled once we found you and ended the winter thing. So, what I'm trying to say is . . ."

Elsa caught on to what Anna was trying to tell her.

"You want to give Kristoff a new sled to keep your promise?"

"Well, it's my fault his last sled broke and I-"

"No worries, Anna. Of course, he can have another sled! He helped you survive and it cost something dear to him, so he deserves a new one as a reward."

"Really? Oh, thank you Elsa!" Anna squealed and hugged her out of joy.

"I also have something else to add to his sled gift." Elsa said.

"You do? What is it?" Anna asked, still holding onto Elsa.

"Along with the sled, I'm also bestowing unto him the title of Arendelle's official Ice Master and Deliverer."

Anna raised an eyebrow at this. "Wow! How come we've never had anyone like that before?"

Elsa stiffened a giggle with her left hand over her mouth. "Because there's no such title, Anna!"

She broke into laughter.

"Wait, what?" Anna asked before submitting to her urge to laugh. It was ridiculous. She was naming Kristoff Bjorgman something that doesn't legally exist here or perhaps anywhere else?

"Elsa . . . I can't . . . believe . . . you would . . . do that . . . for a . . . simple . . . mountain man!" Anna said between fits of giggles.

They decided to let it all out first until both sisters were able to stop.

When finished, Elsa cleared her throat to be serious again.

"Well, I'm the queen now. Kristoff is going to be the first one and he's earned the right.. Plus, it's my way of letting him stay in Arendelle so he can be with you."

Anna gasped with joy. "You'd really do that for me?"

"Of course I would. I'm sure he's bound to be better than Prince Hans. He's not rich, royalty or from a fancy background, but he's certainly nice and caring for you while Hans is the exact opposite of Kristoff: wealthy? Yes. Royal? Yes. Nice and caring? No way. Underneath all that, he's pure evil, spoiled and . . . I don't want to talk about it."

"Good, I don't want to hear about it." Anna replied smartly.

"Just don't ask him to marry you immediately this time. Get to fully know him first and who knows? Perhaps you and him can wed for real in the future."

"Deal." said Anna. Because of Hans, Anna decided to avoid marriage until she was truly ready.

"Now go ahead and find a sled for Kristoff. Select whatever you see that's right for him and if anyone asks, tell them I sent you and that they can send the bill to me and I'll cover the cost." Elsa offered.

"Okey-dokey!" Anna said and ran off to do her task while Elsa continued staring out.

Anna stopped when she noticed Elsa stayed where she was.

"Wait, are you coming with me?" she asked.

"No, thank you. I just want to be alone to plan the party."

"Alright. See you later, Snow Queen!" Anna said and left.

Elsa thought about that name.

_"Snow Queen", huh? I like that. It suits me perfectly._ She thought.

* * *

Anna entered the town, hoping Kristoff would not see her because she intended for this to be a surprise.

She walked into a store that built and sold sleds. There has to be one sled inside that was perfect for Kristoff. It couldn't be just any old sled. No, it had to be something truly unique, something that, if able to speak, said "You deserve me, Kristoff! Nobody else can have me!"

The store owner recognized the girl and bowed on sight.

"P-P-Princess Anna! W-w-what brings you here to my shop?" the store owner said. The owner was a man in his early to mid 30's. He had brown hair, which half was gone as a result of balding, similar to Kai from the castle and wore clothing that a usual salesman would wear.

"Hello. I'm looking for a sled to purchase. It's for one Kristoff Bjorgman, the man who brought me back home before . . . I became a statue, you know what I'm talking about. Anyway, I wish to buy one for him as both a reward for his heroic deeds to me and my sister and to replace a previous sled of his that he lost when he helped me find the queen and I owe him for that. So, whatcha got?" Anna replied.

"Ah, yes. I know who you're speaking of, Princess. He's that fellow with the reindeer. Very well. Follow me to the back." the man said and he led Anna to the back of his shop.

After walking around and seeing many sleds, some finished, some in the progress of being built and some broken and in need of repaired, the two made it to one room that, according to the owner, contained the one sled he not only just finished building, but also felt was only for a truly, worthy buyer.

Anna felt this sled he spoke of had to be the one she sought.

He opened the door and allowed Anna inside to see the sled.

"What do you think of this one, Your Highness?" the owner asked the princess.

Anna gazed at the glorious snow vehicle with her eyes wide and her mouth agape. She knew instantly it was worthy of being owned and operated by Kristoff.

"It's . . . **PERFECT**!" she shouted, making the store owner jump back from her loud voice.

"I'm glad you think so, Princess Anna. Do you want it?"

"Are you kidding? Of course I do! How much is it? My sister said to send the bill of whatever I purchase to her and she would take care of it." Anna said.

The store owner told her the price and Anna immediately said "Sold!" The owner helped her remove the sled from the room and out another backway.

Before leaving, Anna asked if she can put a ribbon or a bow on it to make it a present for Kristoff and the owner obliged.

Anna went to where bows and ribbons were sold and she picked out the ones that suited the sled perfectly.

Now she had to find and bring Kristoff over to see it. But rather than in the store, Anna planned on presenting his new sled to him in public.

She asked if the owner could drag the sled to a designated spot she told him about just now and he said yes. With that, Anna thanked him for the sled and accessories and made for the exit.

"He's gonna love this!" she squealed as she ran to find Kristoff.

* * *

"Come on, come on, come on!" Anna said cheerily as she led Kristoff through the bridge. The man was blindfolded, so he had no way of knowing where the princess was taking him. By the sound her her voice, it had to be something good.

"Ok ok, I'm coming." he said with a slight smile on his face.

"Ah! Pole!" he yelped when he actually bumped into one.

Anna turned, saw and uttered "Whoops, sorry!" before resuming her journey.

They stopped when Anna made it to her intended destination.

"Okay, okay. Here we are!" Anna said.

Realizing Kristoff was still blindfolded, she removed it for him and allowed him to gawk and awe at the special something she had for him.

Kristoff couldn't believe his eyes. What he was looking at was a sled. But it was wholly different from the previous one he owned.

It looked expensive and looked like it was meant for royal or rich people. Kristoff instantly knew that the fancy sled was meant for him.

Sven was standing next to it, helping Anna present the vehicle with a look on his furry face that said, "Is this a sled or is this a sled?". The sled also contained a musical instrument, similar to the one he played with Sven when he first met Anna after he was thrown out of Oaken's store for calling him a crook for his high prices.

"I owe you a sled." Anna told him.

"Are you serious?" Kristoff asked in disbelief. He thought the young girl would forget her promise. She didn't.

"Yes!" Anna squealed and hopped a couple of times to exert her excitement. "It's the latest model!"

Anna folder her arms around her chest and darted her eyes at Kristoff and at the sled back and forth, expecting an "I love it!" type of answer from him.

Instead she got this.

"No. I-I can't accept this." he said, feeling uncomfortable with the gift thinking it was too much.

"You have to! No returns! No exchanges! Queen's orders!" she sternly told him, waving a finger at him to signify her response. It wasn't true of course. The sled was refundable, exchangeable and Elsa never actually ordered for Kristoff to keep it no matter what he said or thought, but Anna added it to make her point abundantly clear to the man. "She's named you the official Arendelle Ice Master and Deliverer."

"What? That's not a thing." Kristoff said, never having heard of such a position before.

"Oh, sure it is." Anna lied, waving her arm at him. "And it even has a cup holder. Do you like it?" Anna asked.

Kristoff's response was picking up Anna by her waist and swirling her in circles happily.

"I love it!" Anna got her answer the way she expected at last.

He and Anna chuckled as this happened.

"Oh, I could kiss you!"

He suddenly stopped and put Anna down after realizing what he had just said to her.

"I mean . . . I'd like to. May I, maybe . . . wait, what?" he said embarrassingly, using Anna's catchphrase at the end as he babbled.

He stopped when Anna gave Kristoff a grateful peck on the cheek, leaving him looking dumbfounded as the look in his wide eyes suggested.

"You may." Anna told him and they embraced in a kiss, indicating their status as a romantic couple.

They hugged as the continued kissing, not caring who sees, which most did and found it adorable.

One child who passed by found it gross and uttered a quick "bleh!" at the sight.

* * *

"Summer!" Olaf exclaimed loudly as he waddled happily around the village, enjoying the season while still unmelted thanks to the flurry above his head granted to him by Elsa so he can frolic around without melting to death.

People saw him, but didn't mind since he was the one who helped save the queen and princess from Hans' murderous intentions and they've come to accept him.

"Oooh!" he said upon spotting some purple flowers and stopped walking.

"Hello." he said to the flowers and proceeded to smell them. Satisfied at first, he later sneezed and lost his carrot nose as a result and it landed right into the mouth of, yep, Sven.

Olaf stared at Sven in terror, knowing the carrot-loving animal would consume it, which he did by sucking it into his mouth like a noodle and gave Olaf a sneer look.

Olaf sighed in defeat and drooped his head in sadness.

Suddenly, Sven forced the carrot back onto Olaf's face and uttered a sound that said, "Just kidding." and the two embraced in a hug, signalling their new friendship.

A piece of snow fell from the flurry cloud and Sven caught it in his tongue and slurped it into his mouth.

* * *

Later that night where the moon was out and giving off a splendid glow, the courtyard was already filled with what appeared to be the entire population. They walked around, chatting about topics such as what they did during the day, what foods they brought for the party, how great it was to have a sorceress like Elsa for a queen and not caring what outsiders might think of her.

Then suddenly, they cheered as Elsa and Anna appeared from the castle entrance.

Elsa stood before the crowd of attendees and prepared for her big announcement.

"Thank you all for attending this gracious event to celebrate my return as your queen, the return of my sister, your princess and my successor for any time I'm unable to perform my duties, the end of the slip-up my own magic caused throughout the land, your faith in and acceptance of me even during the winter and most of all, my sister's new relationship with Mr. Kristoff Bjorgman, the man who aided her in her mission to find me when I was gone! I hope you like what Anna and I have to offer all of you tonight!"

The people cheered again.

With that said, Elsa turned to Anna.

"Go on, Elsa. Give 'em what they want to see!" said Anna.

"Oh, with pleasure." said Elsa.

The queen began pacing to the middle of the crowd and people watched eagerly, knowing what she was going to do.

Elsa turned her back to the crowd as part of her upcoming act.

"Are you ready?" she asked out loud.

The villagers responded with a louder cheer, begging her to proceed.

Elsa inhaled deeply, raised one leg and stomped her foot on the ground.

The ground began to be covered in ice underneath everyone's feet and it reached the walls of the courtyard. She was mimicking what she did at the North Mountain when she built her ice castle during her self-imposed exile.

The people "oooh"ed at this marvelous wonder going on. Elsa's magic freaked everyone out at first when it was revealed, but as of now, they embraced it.

It was during this moment that skate blades magically appeared on the footwear of every citizen when the icy floor made contact with their feet.

Elsa turned around, taking in the sight of the public's interest and excitement of her powers. Aside from the childhood fun she and Anna had as kids before the accident, Elsa had never felt more alive in her whole life. This was bigger now than it was then.

Elsa raised her arms one at a time and the twin fountains on her left and right sides were turned into ice sculptures, similar to how Elsa froze one of them by accident at her last party, but the designs were beautiful-looking this time.

To complete this spectacle, Elsa conjured a ball of snow in her hands, lowered her hands and brought them up into the air, launching the magical ball of snow high into the night sky where it exploded and rained down snowflakes everywhere all over the courtyard.

The people expressed glee at the amazing sight of their queen's work and some collected the falling snowflakes while others began to glide and skate around the new ice rink.

Kai and Gerda enjoyed skating together.

"Whoo-hoo-hoo, swing me!" Gerda said as Kai knelt down on one knee and offered his hand to Gerda.

Elsa was very glad that her magic was being used to provide a night of fun and entertainment for her subjects and for other future events.

Anna approached Elsa, but she was slipping and sliding as she was unable to properly balance herself.

Elsa noticed and helped Anna up and kept her from falling down.

"I like the open gates." said Anna.

Elsa smiled.

"We are never closing them again." she declared.

Noting Anna's lack of skates, Elsa made a wave of her hand and produced skating blades on the soles of her boots.

"Oh Elsa, they're beautiful, but you know I don't skate." Anna said.

"Come on! You can do it!" Elsa said as she held Anna's hands and dragged her around the ice rink.

Anna tried to go along with it. At first, she was perfectly standing and balanced.

"I got it. I got it."

Then she began losing her balance again and she was dangerously close to falling again.

"Idon'tgotitIdon'tgotitIdon'tgotitIdon'tgotit!" she said rapidly as she struggled to stand up with Elsa who was having trouble holding her up herself.

Just then, Anna was saved by Olaf who gently pressed himself against Anna's butt to give her a helping push.

"Oh! Thanks Olaf." Anna said to him.

"Look out! Reindeer coming through!" Kristoff yelled as he and Sven made their way onto the rink too. Like Anna, the two (Sven especially) had trouble balancing themselves.

Olaf began to skate around gracefully and with no trouble at all.

"Glide and pivot! Glide and pivot! Glide and pivot!" he repeated to instruct Anna how to skate properly. His head hopped off of his body for a split second as he did this. The girls laughed in joy as they rode around, dancing the night away.

The nighttime event was a hit for all of Arendelle. Even the palace servants, guards and a couple of the dignitaries joined in on the festivity.

This was a night nobody would ever forget.

Ever.

* * *

In the North Mountain, a giant being made of snow and ice walked around inside Elsa's now-abandoned ice castle, checking to see if anyone was there besides itself. This was Marshmallow, Elsa's second living creation and Olaf's younger brother despite his massive size.

After being injured in the fight to protect his creator from the intruders earlier, the snowman had climbed up the cliffside until he was back on the surface. Its leg, severed by Hans before, was now reattached to the snow monster. The fall did not harm or kill him due to his snow body.

Marshmallow noticed something shiny laying on the ground in front of him. He bent over and picked it up to inspect it. It was Elsa's old crown, the one she threw away when she declared her residence in the ice castle permanent and vowed to never go back to Arendelle. Of course, that was before the invasion that eventually led to her capture and return to the kingdom and because of the current celebration going on in Arendelle, which Marshmallow was unaware of, it looked like his creator was staying there for good.

Marshmallow dusted off the lost crown, looked around to see if he really was the only one there, and placed the object on top of his head while smiling gleefully, letting out his inner prince. He hereby declared himself ruler of the ice castle. This place and the North Mountain was his new home and territory for the rest of his days.

Besides Elsa, who was his '"mother" his older brother Olaf, Anna who was his "aunt" and perhaps Kristoff who may one day be his "uncle", anybody from the outside world who ventured here without his permission would face the chilling wrath of King Marshmallow.

THE END

* * *

**Well, that's the final chapter and ending of my first ever story! I hoped you liked it. There are two references from two Disney-related movies. Can you guess what they are?**

**To Shawn Raven, thanks for the reviews. To the others who reviewed my story, I enjoyed them, don't get me wrong, but aside from that, you guys, or girls, whatever, didn't review me as much as SR did. He was the reason I kept going. I'm not mad or anything. But nevertheless, I thank you all for reading this story anyway.**

**So long!**


End file.
